Natale Adgnot
Natale Adgnot’s practice was formed at the intersection of graphic design, fashion, and art. Her work is informed by all of these disciplines. Adgnot’s career has included stints at Christie’s auction house in New York, Chanel in Paris, and the Fashion Institute of Technology. She merges a fascination with science and patterns to create graphic and geometric sculptures and paintings. A dual citizen of the United States and France, Adgnot has lived in Paris, Tokyo, and many states in the US. She currently lives and works in Brooklyn.
Artist Statement:
I use patterns and systems, whether visible or invisible, to investigate the human vulnerability to dogma and other fallacies. Like solving puzzles, I set arbitrary rules and follow them to their logical conclusions. An underlying preoccupation with repetition and structure leads me to devise and then decode these riddles over and over again. My current series DRAWINGS IN THREE DIMENSIONS, which was begun during a three-year stint in Japan, is the outgrowth of a two-dimensional sketch journal in black and white. Hovering between drawing and sculpture, the compositions are defined by repetitive mark-making within the confines of certain rules. Each piece begins with the making of arbitrary marks which are subsequently codified into a sort of visual law, then broken apart and reconstructed as a three-dimensional object. The resulting configurations, which only reveal themselves in the course of executing the rules, alternate between organic shapes like those found in biological structures, and geometric forms that evoke the irregular rhythm of stalactites and stalagmites. The ongoing series MINERALS is an examination of stereotyping, the hidden systems that inevitably influence human behavior in all cultures and societies. Mapping one system onto another, I use the faces of famous personalities to represent the most extreme qualities of minerals such as hardness, luster and size. The series was initially developed in the United States using references from American culture. It was later reinterpreted to address a Japanese audience following a 2-month research residency at Tokyo Arts and Space. As a dual French/American citizen, I plan to extend the series to encompass references from the cultures of France and French-speaking nations.
Exhibition
Opening & Art Talk - April 6, 2019
TO INTERPRET
APRIL 6, 2019
Event Summary
On Saturday, April 6th, the Society for Domestic Museology celebrated the opening of to interpret, a solo exhibition of work by artist Natale Adgnot that explores the human impulse to find meaning in visual patterns. The exhibition drew from two very different series that play with the way this drive to interpret informs not only our shared cultural norms but the very process of creating art. Read more….