BIOGRAPHY
Natalie Lanese’s work is recognized for its punchy color palette and layered patterns. She makes paintings, collages, and installations, which The Village Voice described as “enigmatic narratives heightened by keen color clashes and jazzy textures” when covering her exhibition at Jack the Pelican Presents in Brooklyn in 2007. Ms. Lanese has exhibited her work at MOCA Tucson, the Akron Art Museum, and the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum in Lincoln, MA, and has installed permanent public artworks in San Diego, Cincinnati, Toledo, and Cleveland, OH. Her work has been featured in New American Paintings. She has attended residencies at Yaddo, the Vermont Studio Center, Otis College of Art + Design, and Sim Residency in Reykjavik, and is the recipient of the Ohio Arts Council’s Individual Excellence Award and the Arts Commission’s Merit Award.
Ms. Lanese received a Master of Fine Arts degree from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. She earned her Bachelor’s degree at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, and a Master of Arts degree at Case Western Reserve University and the Cleveland Institute of Art. She lives and works in Cleveland, Ohio.
Statement
I make abstract geometric paintings and site-specific installations that play with perception of space. Relying on repetition, line, scale shifts, and collage techniques to push and pull on the picture plane, the resulting image manipulates and challenges spatial expectations. I create rules as I go, making decisions that are spontaneous and slightly measured, allowing for mistakes and corrections. DayGlo colors, a signature of the palette, challenge adjacent colors and disrupt a comfortable space. After years of making hard-edged patterns, slick geometric painting has eroded into gestural mark-making and heavily layered textures. The marks are expressionistic, at times smooth and controlled, and sometimes demonstrate struggle and confrontation. The resulting punchy surfaces and dizzying color contrasts inhabit a frontal, shallow, optical space.
Collage serves as a both sculptural and conceptual expression and remains a signature procedural device. Repeating patterns and gestures reiterate the picture plane, while collaged or painted elements push against it, creating a constant, inventive dialogue between illusions of depth and flatness. The paintings expand into the viewer’s space, either perceptually or physically, and create a greater sensory experience beyond seeing.