2013 - present
ink on paper
Begun in 2013, this series includes around 700 drawings to date, many of which were the starting points for sculptures in the series “Drawings in Three Dimensions” and “Chromatics.” An experiment in pareidolia, the sketches are repeated tests of the hypothesis that any meaningless mark, when repeated or given structure, will evoke tangible objects in the real world. I begin each sketch with a few abstract black marks on a white page. Like solving puzzles, I translate the initial marks into a visual law which governs the remainder of the drawing. The resulting compositions, which only inspire names upon completion, range from organic shapes like those found in biological structures to minimalist lines and geometric forms.
2021 - 2022
acrylic and enamel on thermoplastic and panel
Gobolinks are a series of wall sculptures that continue Natale Adgnot’s exploration of cognitive bias and pareidolia (seeing familiar objects in random information). These dimensional klecksographs are named after the Victorian parlor game that used inkblots as jumping-off points for writing poetry years before Hermann Rorschach applied them to psychology.
Capitalizing on humans’ natural attraction to anything with bilateral symmetry, the artist creates abstract compositions that the viewer might interpret to be insect specimens, space invaders, or masquerade ball masks. Acrylic paint is applied, then folded in two to create symmetry. The added element of texture is achieved through a process of painting and shrinking large sheets of thermoplastic before mounting them on birch panels.
2021
installation
In social psychology, Naïve Realism is the human belief that we see the world around us objectively and that anyone who disagrees with us must be irrational, evil, or stupid. This installation is a processing machine featuring two mannequins—naïve realists—transforming inputs (their life experiences and socio-cultural backgrounds) into the outputs of two divergent and immutable worldviews.
Originally unveiled in the artist’s studio during GOS 2021, The Naïve Realists is a reaction to the unprecedented political climate in the United States.
2014 - 2016
acrylic painting with transferred drawings on linen
In the series “Minerals,” I point to the absurdity of objectification and stereotyping by reducing celebrities to their most salient characteristics. Using mineralogy as a framework, I assign famous faces to represent mineral–and human–properties such as color (Barry White), hardness (Clint Eastwood) and cleavage (Dolly Parton). The pairings are sometimes humorous or infuriating; that is, once they are perceived. Like implicit bias, the small face patterns in the background are indiscernible at first glance while the focal point, a large shape in the center, dominates the composition. First developed based on American culture, the “Minerals” series was later redeveloped using faces that are famous in Japan, proving that regardless of culture, a cliché, a stereotype or a façade always hides something more complex.
2016 - 2017
acrylic painting with transfer on linen / mixed media on panel
This series of acrylic paintings and mixed media panels from 2016-17 was inspired by the similarities and the differences between human siblings and their mineral counterparts. Taking a page from the science of mineralogy, related minerals are shown together like children in a family portrait. Occasionally, strikingly different minerals such as diamond and graphite are polymorphs (two forms of the same chemical compound). Like blood brothers and sisters, despite their shared origins, they are virtually unrelated. Other works in the series focus on mineral twinning – a natural phenomenon that occurs when distinct crystals form in aggregates that look like conjoined twins. They are analogous to brothers and sisters who don't fall far from the tree (or from each other).
2017 - 2018
acrylic transfer, enamel on panel
"Specimens" are explorations of mark-making as a meditation. Using photographs of mineral specimens as a starting point, I alter them digitally before transferring them to wood panels and then drawing on them with acrylic paint. Echoes of previous work dealing with mineralogy, geology and pattern design reverberate throughout these shiny mixed-media pieces.
2017
ink and enamel on thermoplastic and panel
These small sculptural drawings on thermoplastic mounted on panel are autobiographical flash frames of my life story. What constitutes home, family and belonging? The titles refer to the death and rebirth of personal identity and a struggle to reconcile the past with the present.
