Nate Lowman: “Courtesy Professionalism Respect (black),” 2010
2010
Details
Nate Lowman
“Courtesy Professionalism Respect (white),” 2010
“Courtesy Professionalism Respect (black),” 2010
30 × 12 × 12 in (76.2 × 30.5 × 30.5 cm)
Painted steel
Series of twenty sculptures with unique marking
Courtesy the artist
Nate Lowman (b. 1979) has created a Limited Edition series, “Courtesy Professionalism Respect (white)” (2010) and “Courtesy Professionalism Respect (black)” (2010), especially for the New Museum.
The two series were inspired by the seven-foot cross-shaped boom on the back of New York Police Department tow trucks. In action, the booms ingeniously snake around under tires in order to move vehicles. Often they can be seen lying dormant, hanging off the back of trucks. This striking anthropomorphic image—culled from the city where the artist lives and works—has been fabricated on a smaller scale than the original (over two feet tall) to create the works, and each is slightly unique. The editions are a re-creation of the tow truck boom’s iconic form, made of laser-cut and machined parts in steel, which have been welded together. Lowman has painted each sculpture and added a mix of different compounds to give them each a slightly different patina. He then engaged with the sculptures in the city streets: Dragging them on the ground, they became both scraped up and rusted—lending them an extraordinary presence.
Lowman is a rule breaker. His work consistently disrupts the way in which we think we know or understand art, and its place in the world. The artworks he creates—whether they are paintings inspired by fake bullet hole decals on car windows, or the psychotic nature of a smiley face, or a series of beautifully rusted side panels of old gas pumps from the 1920s and 1950s (that are hard to place without their fronts)—pervert an image or object’s original or intended function or meaning, as he continually engages head on with the formal preoccupations of Minimalism. Lowman forces the viewer to confront new layers of meaning through his particular economy of means and mark-making. To spend time with the artist or with his artwork is exciting—eyes open wider and expectations are wonderfully thwarted.
Nate Lowman has exhibited widely and received international acclaim for his work. Most recently, Lowman’s solo exhibitions have included: “The Natriot Act,” Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo, “Nate Lowman,” the Hydra Workshop, Greece (2009), and “A Dog From Every County,” Maccarone, New York (2009). The artist has an upcoming solo exhibition with Massimo De Carlo, London, in March 2010. Selected group exhibitions include “Wall & Floor,” Galerie Almine Rech, Paris (2009), “Beg, Borrow and Steal,” Rubell Family Collection, Miami (2009), “Besides, With, Against and Yet: Abstraction and the Ready-Made Gesture,” The Kitchen, New York (2009), “New York Minute”, curated by Kathy Grayson, MACRO, Rome (2008), “The Cooreman Collection,” Museum Dhondt-Dhaenens, Belgium (2008), “Mapping the Studio: Artists from the François Pinault Collection,” curated by Alison Gingeras and Francesco Bonami, Palazzo Grassi, Venice, Italy (2008), “Unmonumental,” New Museum, New York (2007). Lowman will be included in upcoming group exhibitions this spring at the Guggenheim Museum, New York, and Andrea Rosen Gallery, New York.