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A Place to Rest

Nathan Ng Catlin
A PLACE TO REST, 2019
Ceramic teapots
14 1/2 x 7 1/2 x 7 1/2 in.

To Have Lived and to Have Suffered in Some One Besides Myself

Nathan Ng Catlin
TO HAVE LIVED AND TO HAVE SUFFERED IN SOME ONE BESIDES MYSELF, 2022
Acrylic on panel with stained glass and lights
49 x 73 in.

A Labor of Love II

Nathan Ng Catlin
A LABOR OF LOVE II, 2022
Ceramic teapot
7 x 8 x 8 in.

BEYOND THE WAVES OF ROOFTOPS

Nathan Ng Catlin
BEYOND THE WAVES OF ROOFTOPS, 2022
Acrylic and stained glass on panel
49 x 61 in.

A Labor of Love

Nathan Ng Catlin
A LABOR OF LOVE, 2022
Ceramic teapot
7 x 8 x 8 in.

A DEATH

Nathan Ng Catlin
A DEATH, 2022
Acrylic on canvas with wooden frame
13 1/2 x 13 1/2 in.

Conversing

Nathan Ng Catlin
CONVERSING, 2022
Ceramic
9 x 9 x 9 in.

OR RATHER HER LEGEND (EYES OPEN)

Nathan Ng Catlin
OR RATHER HER LEGEND (EYES OPEN), 2022
Stained glass
21 1/2 x 17 1/2 in.

UNTITLED (GLASS HATCHET)

Nathan Ng Catlin
UNTITLED (GLASS HATCHET), 2022
Glass

OR RATHER HER LEGEND (EYES CLOSED)

Nathan Ng Catlin
OR RATHER HER LEGEND (EYES CLOSED), 2022
Stained glass
21 1/2 x 17 1/2 in.

Are You Sure Your Story is the Real One?

Nathan Ng Catlin
ARE YOU SURE YOUR STORY IS THE REAL ONE, 2022
Acrylic on panel with stained glass and lights
49 1/2 x 37 1/2 in.

CANDLE LIGHT

Nathan Catlin
CANDLE LIGHT, 2022
Ceramic
10 x 9 x 9 in.

OUTSIDE MYSELF

Nathan Ng Catlin
OUTSIDE MYSELF, 2022
Found door with stained glass
72 x 36 x 6 in.

Searching

Nathan Ng Catlin
SEARCHING, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
51 1/2 x 31 1/2 in.

Outside

Nathan Ng Catlin
OUTSIDE, 2022
Acrylic on canvas
57 1/2 x 37 1/2 in.

To Feel the Very Nature of the Creature That I Am

Nathan Ng Catlin
TO FEEL THE VERY NATURE OF THE CREATURE THAT I AM, 2022
Acrylic on panel with stained glass and lights
49 1/2 x 37 1/2 in.

Davidson Gallery presents What Goes on Behind a Windowpane, an exhibition of new work by Nathan Ng Catlin. The work in the exhibition includes painting, ceramic, stained glass, and found objects, each indicative of Catlin’s signature clear line style and his ability to work in virtually any medium. The title of the exhibition and many of the works in it are taken from the Charles Baudelaire poem “Windows” but references the artist’s – and every person’s – experience over the past two years. Windows appear in nearly every work, creating physical and visual thresholds through which people see and are seen, creating a voyeuristic effect as the subjects do not know they are being watched. Like many artists, Catlin spent the majority of the pandemic working in his studio or sitting at home, looking out the window at a world that seemed to stand still, even as the inexorable march of time and nature continued to run their course. The stained glass is most obviously associated with church windows, which Catlin subverts to make profane the normally sacred narrative that they impart, while also sanctifying the interiority that we were all forced to experience.


While uncertainty reigned so too did civil and social unrest, creating a metaphysical window through which we viewed the world, and saw ourselves as though in partial reflection. Catlin’s work always maintains a certain degree of allegorical mystery. Each image is a frozen snapshot that exists in a moment just before or after a significant event, following a narrative known in full only to the artist, but understandable to all as part of the human condition. The sense of being watched by unseen eyes, the inherent eeriness of being alone in the woods, or even the way we distract ourselves from the real-world events going on just outside. As Beaudelaire wrote in “Windows”, “What we can see in daylight is always less interesting than what happens behind a windowpane,” Catlin captures this emotion as he deftly transitions between different mediums and scale to achieve a singular new series.
 

Nathan Ng Catlin is a multi-disciplinary artist who lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. As a mixed-race first-generation Asian American from southern California, Catlin is interested in the complex narratives that arise from distinctions (culture, views on morality, etc.) that bring people together and separate them. His work is representational and figurative, featuring human interactions that draw inspiration from classical paintings, comic books, and tattoos. Catlin received his BFA in printmaking from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2007 and his MFA from Columbia University in 2012. He works in multiple mediums including printmaking, painting, ceramics, stained glass, and mosaic. This is his second solo exhibition with Davidson Gallery.