"Nathaniel Praska’s American Nightmares: On Viewing 'By the Skin of Our Teeth'" by Alden Nagel
A Gallery Exhibit Review
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Alden Nagel is the founder and editor of Nut Hole Publishing, and also a writer. You can find him on Instagram @aldennagelward
Nathaniel Praska’s gallery show “By the Skin of Our Teeth '' is akin to a sequence of images from alternative, even underground American cinematics. This comparison becomes literal when you consider their sequential placement across the walls of the gallery, becoming like a cinematic reel - frame by frame, with no space in between the panels shown. The filmmaker Harmony Korine, specifically his films Gummo and Trash Humpers, comes to mind immediately when intaking his work. There is a keen auteurist style present, depicting scenes of American life in a subversively “underbelly” sense: scenes of lost children finding lost ways to fill lost days; of bystanding adults socializing with others in casually transgressing ways, which make shake certain top-buttoned folks among us. The mere act of smoking a cigarette, or of standing in a parking lot, attains a level of low-burning horror that goes beyond any typical social commentary, to just saying “this is just how it is”. Nathaniel understands this, and manifests it in a wholly true way, one which goes beyond any description of the paintings in the exhibition, in any form.
That is not to say that Nathaniel Praska’s work judges his characters by allowing a moralistic perspective to pervade his works. His panels put forth scenes that go beyond any such semantic of how one ought to be; characters represented within are much more truthful, yet hidden, to a degree that might even be called shocking. They are hidden by themselves; they transgress upon themselves, and trespass upon their respective larger societies. Praska’s work is clearly empathetic, in the contemporary sense of allowing a true sense of humanity and respect which goes beyond being simply respectful -- his scenes are a revelation. They are a revelation on how to exhibit the inhabitants of our collective American spaces. There is a true hope in his panels, an active dialogue with the others in attendance, and in the metaphysically truthful way. His paintings are blueprints for more than a contemporarily radical empathy -- they present themselves as examples to look up to and ascribe to, both inside and outside of the entirety of the world of art altogether.
This is shown, at first, in the most mundane sense, a distinctly beautiful, yet austere mise-en- scène; a scenery of trailers, of common barbecues, of turbo engine cars, of unoccupied green spaces. However, one only has to take a passing glance at the many faces present throughout Praska’s work to see that there is something more. Faces which are distinctly irrealist, contrary to what is immediately shown throughout all of his work in terms of color theory, hue balance, and tone pairing. This last point is apparent, as there is something which could be felt sonically, musically, to the application of tactility within Praska’s paintings. To be clear, all of his paintings are engaging to look at, to gaze at simply on the basis of how great their colors appear in relation to each other; some art critics might call the paintings “delicious” based on their surface-level aesthetics alone. This tangible distortion of tactility within the paintings is clear; one can gaze at his paintings and see a laboriously detail crafted through time. In creating his panels, Praska recycles both material and paint alike, including canvas and oil sticks. He often paints over other works as well, a process that alludes to a third material the artist utilizes as a medium; time and history itself. His recycling of materials and paints in his process creates a heavy, gritted texture to show through in his works in such a way. The paintings reveal past histories even while displaying something else entirely; a truly engrossing tactility of both image and of subject matter.
In this show, By The Skin Of Our Teeth, Praska is very clearly making paintings of the common man. He not only takes inspiration from his own working-class background (the artist having never attended a formal art school, his experience and aptitude being solely autodidactic through experience, and a noted obsession with art books in his own youth). Praska grasps and holds onto that which is purely internal. His understanding of the inwardly expressed nature of the American nightmare through which he works is made clear. This is, of course, where a comparison to the esteemed German painter Anselm Kiefer is truly justified.
This artistic nature is shown beyond his representations of characters, scenes, and spaces. The methodology through which he manifests his characters is radical in how it both creates and simultaneously unveils layers, to be understood, of this truly radical understanding of life, of experience, of all of us. I cannot recommend Praska’s artwork with anything less than the whole of my being. It is a gallery exhibition for all, of artwork which depicts us all -- whether we recognize it or not. Praska recognizes this, and for this, he needs to be recognized as a key talent in the contemporary art world. This exhibition fully deserves to be seen as soon as possible, and cherished for its full value, which, I might add, stays with the viewer for much longer than the time one is at the gallery. It is not simply worth seeing; it is a revelation simply waiting for one to take it in, to bask in, and to feel their sublime power.
“By The Skin Of Our Teeth” was curated by Vuslat D. Katsanis and İlknur Demirkoparan, both of MPAC (MinEastry of Postcollapse Art and Culture) in association with after|time, this is the first international hybrid viewing experience for both in-person (in PDX) and online at the MPAC virtual gallery online. Running from May 2nd through May 31st at the after|time collective in Downtown Portland, you can locate their gallery and the exhibit at 735 SW 9th Ave #110 Portland, OR 97205.