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Nathaniel Mary Quinn\u2019s \u201cErica with the Pearl Earring, 2015.\u201d Known for his distinctive \u201cpaint-drawing\u201d technique, the artist has rendered family members, pop culture figures and subjects of 17th-century portraiture, and drawn from influences such as Francis Bacon and Romare Bearden.<\/p>\n
Courtesy of the artist and Gagosian<\/p>\n
The Chicago native will honor her with \u201cA Love Letter to My Mother<\/a>,\u201d his first solo exhibition in the city. Opening Thursday at the National Public Housing Museum,<\/a> the show will feature his unique, collage-like, composite portraits and a replica of his family\u2019s living room in their apartment, circa 1984, in the Robert Taylor Homes project.<\/p>\n The exhibition expresses the complexities of living in public housing, where Quinn experienced poverty and abandonment, but also found love and inspiration. It comes at a time of growing visibility in the international art world for the Brooklyn-based artist, who is represented by one of contemporary art\u2019s most notable galleries, Gagosian<\/a>. His work, which has been presented at solo exhibitions throughout the U.S. and Europe, has been acquired by such prestigious institutions as the Whitney Museum of American Art, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Art Institute of Chicago.<\/p>\n Last year, a solo show in New York marked an evolution in his art, which has established him as one of today\u2019s \u201cmost distinctive figurative painters,\u201d according to Gagosian director Aaron Baldinger. And one of his designs will soon grace the cover of the Rolling Stones\u2019 forthcoming album \u201cForeign Tongues.\u201d<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Quinn\u2019s first solo museum exhibition in Chicago opens this week at the National Public Housing Museum at 919 S. Ada St. <\/p>\n Timothy Hiatt\/For the Sun-Times<\/p>\n But showing at an institution such as the National Public Housing Museum allows his creations to be understood within the framework of contemporary art and his lived experience.<\/p>\n Quinn said the pain of his past has not only motivated him to work hard, but want to return home to give back. That\u2019s why the opening of the exhibition will also include a free community picnic<\/a> to honor his mother\u2019s tradition of cooking Thanksgiving meals for the neighborhood.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is, indeed, a love letter to my mom, and part of that love letter is the exercise of love,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n Using art as protection in public housing<\/p>\n Quinn said it\u2019s hard to escape his memories of Bronzeville\u2019s now-demolished Robert Taylor Homes<\/a>, which the commissioner of Chicago\u2019s Department of Housing called \u201ca symbol of disinvestment, redlining and policy failures.\u201d Quinn recalls tall, concrete buildings, dirt grounds and skies that always seemed overcast. He said he was surrounded by gang violence, drug addiction and mental illness, but the residents had no access to resources to help.<\/p>\n He was aware that his family had very little; his father did his best with odd jobs, and his mother lost use of her left arm and leg after suffering two strokes. But she never complained as she did household chores, and that inspired him.<\/p>\n \u201cI always remind myself, if my mother was able to mount a curtain with one arm, I have no excuse,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cCharles: Re-visited, 2015,\u201d by Nathaniel Mary Quinn, is featured in his solo exhibition at the National Public Housing Museum. \u201cThe fact that he is doing portraiture and figuration for African American people, everyday people and people who have traditionally been marginalized is really important,\u201d said Lisa Yun Lee, the museum\u2019s director.<\/p>\n Photo by RCH, courtesy of the artist and Gagosian<\/p>\n At the same time, Quinn described the family\u2019s apartment as his first studio. Growing up, he sketched in the margins of coloring books and on the walls, which his mother patiently wiped clean whenever he needed a fresh canvas. But gang leaders also recognized his talent and requested he draw cartoon portraits of them.<\/p>\n \u201cI was not in a position to say no,\u201d Quinn said. \u201cI was like the peasant working in the court of the aristocrats,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n The task also provided him with protection until he was able to attend Culver Academies boarding school in Indiana for ninth grade. But tragedy struck that first year when his mother died suddenly, and his father and brothers abandoned the apartment. Quinn returned home for Thanksgiving to just a few articles of clothing, a loaf of bread and a bottle of RC Cola in the refrigerator.<\/p>\n \u201cI had nowhere to go, and I just had to make my way in life,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n In the decades since, only one of his brothers reached out after hearing him on a podcast. But he never heard from the rest of his family again.<\/p>\n Quinn went on to finish high school, study art and psychology at Wabash College in Indiana, and obtain an MFA from New York University. From there, he moved to Brooklyn and taught at-risk youth while continuing to grow as a painter.<\/p>\n His career took off in 2013, when he developed his \u201cpaint-drawing\u201d technique, collaging fragments of images to form faces and figures. He works with materials such as black charcoal, oil paint, paint stick, oil pastel and gouache, which is opaque paint. Many of his works feature people from his life, including his brother, who is depicted in \u201cCharles: Re-visited.\u201d He also has rendered pop culture figures and subjects of 17th-century portraiture, and drawn from influences such as Francis Bacon and Romare Bearden.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat you\u2019re trying to do is strike balance in a work of art,\u201d Quinn said. \u201cYou\u2019re trying to ensure that the composition is right. It\u2019s like a jazz band that has perfect harmony, or a well-lit Christmas tree.\u201d<\/p>\n Art that grapples with beauty and violence<\/p>\n Quinn\u2019s show with the city\u2019s new National Public Housing Museum has been in the works for several years, said Lisa Yun Lee, the museum\u2019s director, who first saw his art at Chicago\u2019s Rhona Hoffman Gallery.<\/a><\/p>\n \u201cHis work is so known amongst art collectors and people who are really excited about the future of portraiture and figuration,\u201d Lee said. \u201cThis is a way of sharing his work with the tens of thousands of people who come through the museum who might not be art collectors, but who really deserve to see this work and grapple with all of the beauty and violence and memory in it.\u201d<\/p>\n Quinn\u2019s pieces also stand out because of their subjects, Lee said.<\/p>\n \u201cIn art history, oftentimes portraiture and figuration is reserved for people of a moneyed class, and it\u2019s always existed as a form of representation for power and privilege,\u201d she said. \u201cThe fact that he is doing portraiture and figuration for African American people, everyday people and people who have traditionally been marginalized is really important.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"An](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1779301635_254_.jpeg\")
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