Nate Lowman’s Shaped Canvases Unlock Art Historical Dialogue

Nate Lowman presents a strikingly inventive body of work that reimagines the very architecture of painting itself. His newest exhibition at the gallery’s 19th Street location showcases a series of shaped canvases that adopt the distinctive silhouette of keys, each one a portal into a singular artistic language and historical moment. The formal constraint of the key shape becomes paradoxically liberating, allowing the artist to orchestrate an extraordinary dialogue across divergent painterly traditions and visual registers.

What renders this series particularly compelling is Lowman’s sophisticated layering of influence and observation. Each canvas recalls a distinct art historical vernacular while simultaneously demonstrating his virtuosic command of different techniques and visual vocabularies. The paintings function as both autonomous artistic statements and as conversations with the broader historical continuum of image making.

In the work Bouboulinamou, Lowman channels his encounter with graffiti discovered throughout the garden of the Bouboulina Museum on the Greek island of Spetses. The artist has transformed ephemeral markings and street vernacular into carefully considered compositions, elevating found visual language into a meditative formal exercise. This particular painting exemplifies Lowman’s gift for extracting profound artistic potential from unexpected sources, translating the spontaneous energy of discovered imagery into his own uniquely calibrated visual language.

The finissage celebration on Friday evening presents an exceptional opportunity to experience these works within their intended gallery context before the exhibition concludes. The accompanying zine launch further enriches the presentation, offering additional insight into Lowman’s conceptual framework and the research that informs this ambitious body of work.

The shaped canvas format invokes a lineage of formal experimentation whilst remaining entirely contemporary in its execution and sensibility. Lowman’s assured hand and conceptual sophistication elevate these works beyond mere formal play, creating paintings that possess intellectual rigour alongside considerable visual seduction. The interplay between the architectural constraint and the fluid, expressive mark making generates a palpable tension that animates each composition.

Imagery courtesy of David Zwirner (@davidzwirner).