The Weird and Wonderful

Nathan Magee

Opening: Monday 19th August 12-5pm

Exhibition continues: 19th August - 2nd September 2024

The Weird and Wonderful is an introduction to a world created through key events that happened over my life. It dives into my connection with melancholy and the surreal environments that I attach to past memories. Melancholy for me is a state which doesn’t fully exist outside of thought, but in every aspect feels real. Each piece is a reflection of key moments in my life as I've dealt with loss, love, sexuality & the transition into adulthood.

From its conception this work has been to illuminate real places and people with my own personal experience. Melancholy for me has always been a heightened state in which we wish to reside in as we can longer experience them physically, documenting these moments has meant that I can visit the moments without it engulfing my thoughts. They serve as a positive reminder that I felt that way & I created work in relation to it when I couldn't push past it.

The project also pays homage to the master painters, such as Rembrandt & Caspar David Friedrich with the same lighting techniques, posing & overall tone. Their guidance through their art has helped me create a more timeless piece that cannot be pinpointed to a specific time period, but one that can still be remembered.

I hope to transport you into a more still world, one in which you can safely reside while you gather your thoughts, offering clarity from its ever changing form. A sanctuary for the mind.

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Through my artistic practice, I have been driven to create otherworldly compositions that reflect the inner working of my past & present. Revisiting moments of doubt, desire through each subject and environment, always as if the subjects have woven the surroundings themselves. This approach has helped me reframe my past memories, leaving a mark that I can revisit, surviving as a sanctuary for the captured mind.

The work embodies the moments that I reflect upon spanning from adolescence to adulthood, sexual identity and past relationships, both romantic and platonic. The absence of important individuals has left me with thoughts and fractured memories that I wish to revisit. Through my art, I have created a sanctuary where I dictate the feeling and mood- something I now control as both an adult and artist, embracing my ever changing mind.

My process involves photography that is heavily inspired by the romantic period. This melding of mediums I feel helps me bring a timeless mood to this body of work, something that often relates to the melancholic state. This bridging the gap between past and present, inviting you to find solace in the landscapes that I create.

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