MiArt / Nathan Margoni

Nathan’s art will be on view at 1577 Plainfield Ave NE, Grand Rapids, MI for at least one month starting November 4, 2019.

Bio
Nathan Margoni is a figurative painter and sculptor who combines a crude sense of humor with meticulous craft.
Nathan is currently the Manager of Education at the Krasl Art Center in St. Joseph, MI. He received his BFA in Painting from the Cleveland Institute of Art and his MFA in Sculpture from SUNY Purchase College. He has exhibited work at Schulamit Nazarian (Los Angeles, CA), the Urban Institute of Contemporary Art (Grand Rapids, MI), and attended residencies at Wassaic Project (Wassaic, NY), Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT), Millay Colony (Austerlitz, NY) and Kaus Australis (Rotterdam, NL).

Artist Statement
I am obsessed with ugliness - acne-ridden, scabby, flabby flesh. Beauty - the airbrushed kind on the magazine covers - disgusts me. This is more than an aesthetic preference. It is a choice between reality and fantasy, acceptance and denial, confidence and shame. Embracing ugliness is how I stay grounded, forgive and respect myself. On top of all that, ugliness is fun to draw. I love rendering the texture of wrinkly skin, colorful bruises, and tiny hairs sprouting in surprising places. I also enjoy rendering the cracks in a beautiful surface, revealing the ugliness behind the facade.

You can connect with Nathan on Instagram at @nathanmargoni.

Curator: Libby Vanderploeg

My name is Libby VanderPloeg and I'm an illustrator and designer. I grew up in Michigan on the edge of the Great Lakes dunes in a little town called Grand Haven. Since then, I've lived in Grand Rapids, Chicago, New York, and Stockholm. My work comes out of my deep affinity for storytelling, music, letterforms, printed ephemera, and wildlife. None of these works could have been made without the world's finest brioche and several good, strong cups of coffee.

Connect with Libby on Instagram at @libbyvanderploeg.