Subtle Gestures

Subtle Gestures: Justin Natividad at VillageOne Art offers viewers insight into the artist’s nuanced painting practice with this first solo show in New York City. The artist’s demonstrated acumen across a range of painterly styles offers the viewer a range of experiences, spanning deft expressions of diffuse, atmospheric light and figurative articulation. Natividad’s oeuvre offers a dazzling array of artworks for visitors to explore. His paintings capture a heightened sense of realism, filtered through a lens of luminosity offering the viewer access to a depth of emotional and psychological landscapes. The artist’s demonstrated facility with figurative painter emerges from his subtle gestures, infusing surfaces with warm tones and painterly brushstrokes defining anatomical structures in a charged and introspective manner.

Artist Cordy Ryman reflects on Natividad’s grasp of figuration and representation in his paintings. “In his paintings you can clearly see a highly developed eye, a sharp mind, a sensitivity to materials,” remarks Ryman. “What strikes me when viewing his work is his capture of a fleeting, cathartic, existential pause, giving the viewer an unsettled pause and space for thought.” This diaphanous treatment of his subject matter lends the artist’s paintings an airiness and a sense of introspection that lingers, prompting the viewer to spend time examining the elements of his compositions. His painterly figuration aligns with the contemporary standard bearers such as Lucian Freud and Alex Katz. His adroit renderings of vacant street scenes have an air of Edward Hopper to them, while the manner in which his paintings pay attention to the striking minutiae and details denotes ownership of a strongly developed artistic style. The artist notes that frequent influences lie in personal travels and experiences. “ I found myself reaching further back to an emotionally unfamiliar place,” shares Natividad. “It’s here where I tried to find my footing for this body of work.” The artist’s balanced yet nuanced approach to gesture and articulation in his compositions offers the viewer something new to examine at every turn in this rewarding solo exhibition.