Nate Young // Postracializationalism

In Young’s recent work, celebrities, pop stars, and other iconic figures are juxtaposed alongside California license plates. Formally, the drawings are placed next to each other through exacto fine cut-outs; parti...ally readable letters butt up against acutely drawn renderings of Kanye West, Charlton Heston and the late pop king Michael Jackson. The insertion of the portraits into groupings of seemingly arbitrary letter and number systems that half suggest a word or acronym tie deliberate but unstable relationships between them. A dead-eyed gazing Micheal Jackson stares at us from a cut out geometric shape sitting among plates reading “4PRV013” and “3NOH023”. In a similar way that poetry rests on the variable of language construction by placing word choices together, the work’s agency rests in the effectual insertion of the portraits into a setting of letters and numbers that may or may not form a relationship.

Young's show at XYandZ will also include video projection created by the artist. The night of the opening Young will be doing a performance piece with a local poet.
Studio visit with artist Nate Young produced by Permanent Art and Design: http://vimeo.com/28826898
Runs through October 7th
Photos by Eric Melzer