Nathaniel Robinson at Magenta Plains- David Zwirner Platform

Nathaniel Robinson at Magenta Plains 

Digital Exhibition courtesy of David Zwirner Platform

Nathaniel Robinson

Untitled, 2020

Oil on canvas

48 x 72 inches (121.9 x 182.9 cm)

After quickly scrolling past Nathaniel Robinsons paintings currently on view at Magenta Plains, I feel no sense of missing out on experiencing these redundant works in person. As a photographer my feelings towards painting are often biased by nature but these works truly fall flat. “A less exciting version of Eddie Arroyo’s paintings on display at the 2019 Whitney Biennale” crosses my mind as a first thought and relevant comparison. Although Untitled, 2020 causes me to briefly reminisce about the view from the fire escape at my former Crown Heights Apartment, it doesn't transcend any newly formed thoughts about our current time and space. It feels to be a waiting moment, similarly felt throughout the mundane elevator rides, surely to be forgotten in our lives. Maybe this is successful in some capacity for certain viewers out there, who knows. 

 Can I imagine the space these paintings fill? Sure. Is it striking or transportive? Maybe. 

My annoyance for this work subsides when viewing Robinsons sculptural work. My attention lasts just a bit longer as I scroll past more dull paintings and am grabbed at with positive curiosity embedded in Robinsons 3-dimensional creations. Installation view of , No One's Things, 2018 transports me back to a washed up version of the Donald Judd exhibition currently on view at Moma. I mean washed up in the best way possible. The bleak colors of old plastic milk juggs and a black tire feel reflective on the banal human experience post-industrialization. Repose 2015 depicts a teal deteriorated domestic home, a more successful attempt to comment on the “...physical shattering of ecosystems…” we have become subject to.

Unlike his paintings, Robinsons sculptures create a world of optimism simultaneously crushed into compact replications of first-hand domestic experiences. My biggest takeaway from the exhibition…. this artist should stick to sculpture

Nathaniel Robinson, 

Repose, 2015, 

pigmented polyurethane resin, 

10.5h x 14w x 14d in.