Installation view. Photo: Kevin Todora
In Full of Song, Nathan Randall Green fuses celestial energy with earthly forms, forging a dialogue that links the cosmic to the tangible. The seven abstract paintings at Erin Cluley Gallery explore two central motifs: a radiating sun arching over a horizon and shifting starfields shaped by dappled grids. The radiant sun dominates, repeated and montaged within a single canvas to suggest cosmic force. In contrast, the grid-like works evoke the dynamic tension of material fields, their patterns organizing and dissolving across the composition. Two expanses of blue-white paint applied on the gallery walls create a deliberate misalignment within the installation. These fields house select paintings, their wavering, shadowed presence introducing a subtle spatial depth that mirrors the paintings’ interplay of light and form.
Installation view. Photo: Kevin Todora
Green’s works command attention through their materiality, with layered paint and unconventional substrates. Paper pulp, abraded with grinders, sanders, and other tools, transforms into rough, textured surfaces that cake the panel and warp its edges, forming a tactile ground for color. This unevenness disrupts the traditional flatness of painting, dismantling any illusion of depth and rooting the work in its physical reality. The aggregate surface conjures rocky Martian terrains or southwestern deserts, reminding us that the sublime vastness of the cosmos mirrors the landscapes of our own planet. The optically rich imagery — luminous suns, faceted skies, and dappled stars — points toward the universe, while the concrete base anchors us firmly in the terrestrial.
Nathan Randall Green, “The Sky is Full of Song,” 2024, acrylic, ink, and paper pulp on canvas, artist panel, 40 x 48 inches. Photo: Kevin Todora
In The Sky is Full of Song, dark washes provide a foundation for scatterings of kaleidoscopic blots of paint. A low, modulating horizon suggests distant plains, while the sky fractures into shards of cerulean and violet that flow through turquoise and orange before softening into yellow. The optical blending — both at the micro and macro scales — propels us into the realm of light, rooting the work in its spectral complexity. Each patch contains an intricate interplay of hue, less reminiscent of Pointillist experiments and more aligned with the chromatic dialogues of contemporaries like Stanley Whitney and Keltie Ferris. This is most poignant in the second row of dabs from the bottom, where marine blue understructures shift seamlessly into soft coral and muted aqua.
Nathan Randall Green, “3 Stars (Night Sky),” 2024, acrylic, ink, and paper pulp on canvas; artist panel, 55 x 48 inches. Photo: Kevin Todora
In 3 Stars (Night Sky), bursts of radiant hues emanate from dark oblong semicircles, deepening the relationship between image and textured foundation. Scumbled paint transforms the pulp into a scattering of particulate, a nova-like diffusion that reinforces the painting’s ethereal quality. In three columns, a streaming spectrum of pink and blue strips extends outward from the circular shapes, their charged hues drawing the viewer into an entanglement of line and color. The dark mass at the center acts as a visual anchor, while the eye zips along the bands of chroma. This interplay of light and shadow requires the viewer to step in and out of these paths, as if crossing wire, to stay engaged with the underlayer. The stellar qualities shine in these simplified works, where luminosity and depth generate a force that pushes outward.
Nathan Randall Green, “4 Skies (FOS),” 2024, acrylic, ink, and paper pulp on canvas; artist panel, 51 x 48 inches. Photo: Kevin Todora
In 4 Skies (FOS), the solar motif reappears, this time divided across four quadrants. Here, beams divide rather than project, structuring the composition. Each quadrant houses an array of opaque purples, oranges, salmons, and pale yellows, creating a sense of segmentation. Unlike the celestial paintings, these suns rise from an earthy palette of oxides, tying their radiance to the material world. Light becomes matter, linking ancient symbols to contemporary experience.
Green, who lives in the Bronx, was inspired by a steel fence he noticed on daily walks after moving there. Designed in segments, its rods formed the pattern of a beaming sun. At the right time of day, sunlight cast intricate shadows onto the sidewalk, echoing an ancient rhythm — shadows once used to chart time and trace the sun’s arc. This interplay of light and form courses through Green’s work, shifting our gaze between the boundless and the immediate. His paintings evoke the expansive majesty of a desert sunset, where vast skies meet grounded terrain, bridging the infinite and the intimate with quiet resonance.
Nathan Randall Green’s Full of Song was on view at Erin Culey Gallery from November 16 – December 21, 2024.
