Culture Now: Nate Lowman

American artist Nate Lowman is in conversation with Michele Robecchi, discussing his practice ahead of his new London solo exhibition Downtown is a Construct (Massimo De Carlo London, 9 Feb – 2 April 2016).

Mirroring contemporary American society, Nate Lowman draws the raw materials for his art from the news, popular media and art history, incessantly appropriating everyday objects and images. The works in Lowman’s new London solo show derive from the roof of his Tribeca loft studio, a weathered civic landmark building at the furthest mid-eastern border of the East Tribeca Historic District. Conveying exposed wires, pipes, and modern track lighting that overlaps the 19th century decorative tin ceiling tiles, the images are grainy and high contrast, rendered in black dots that look as if they had been printed rather than painted onto the white linen surfaces.

Nate Lowman was born in 1979 in Las Vegas, he currently lives and works in New York. Solo exhibitions include: 2America Sneezes, Dallas Contemporary, Dallas, USA, ( 2015); I Wanted to Be an Artist But All I Got Was This Lousy Career, The Brant Foundation Art Study Center, Greenwich, USA, (2012); Three Amigos: Gift Ghost GAP, American Academy in Rome, Rome, Italy, (2011); The Natrioct Act, Astrup Fearnely Museum, Oslo, Norway, (2009); Nate Lowman, The Hydra Workshop, Hydra, Greece, (2009); Axis of Praxis, Midway Contemporary Art Center, Minneapolis, USA,(2006).  His work has been exhibited internationally in many exhibitions including: Three Blind Mice, Dhondt-Dhaenens Museum, Deurle, Belgium, (2014); Temi e Variazioni. L’Impero della Luce, Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Palazzo Venier dei Leoni, Venice, Italy, (2014); 12th Biennale de Lyon, La Biennale de Lyon, Lyon, France (2013); Nate Lowman: Homage to Jay Defeo, public performance at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, USA (2013);  American Exuberance, Rubell Family Collection, Miami, USA, (2011); and Fresh Hell, Palais de Tokio, Paris, France, (2010).

Michele Robecchi is a writer and curator based in London, where he is a Commissioning Editor at Phaidon Press and a Visiting Professor at Christie's Education. He is the author of a monograph on the work of Sarah Lucas (2006) and, together with Francesca Bonazzoli, of From Mona Lisa to Marge: How the World's Greatest Artworks entered Popular Culture (2014). Recent publications featuring his writings include Moving Image (Whitechapel Art Gallery, 2015), Vitamin D2: Different Perspectives on Drawing (Phaidon, 2013), and Theories and Documents on Contemporary Art (University of California Press, 2012).