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Ron Nagle’s diminutive sculptural work is colorful, ironic, and layered with texture and detail. This seminal Californian artist, working in the professional arena for thirty years,continues his fascination with intimately scaled, finely crafted objects.
All of the new works are small, but with an intensity that will knock the viewer out. Resting atop delicate platforms, these forms refer to abstract painting. The color draws the eye to the edges, and the vibration that is set up spreads across the textured surface. The artist gives them names that are often humorous, and sometimes reminiscent of song titles: Finchilada, Dust to Dusk, and Triangular Tracy.
Other pieces belong to a continuing series of Smoove Wares, a closed cup form with a square painting and additional knife-blade appendage. Reviewing similar works in Nagle’s recent New York exhibition, critic Roberta Smith wrote, “Like Frank Stella, John Chamberlain or Ken Price, Ron Nagle operates in the gap between painting and sculpture.” An unusual color sensibility continues throughout the work, showing Nagle’s mastery of complex color relationships.
Ron Nagle was born in San Francisco in 1939, grew up in the Mission district, and graduated from San Francisco State College. However, it was exposure to the work of Ken Price and the Ferus Gallery artists that changed his direction. As the artist has stated, “Here was this guy making boxes with cups and lace and stuff, and it blew my mind.” Profoundly affected by the work of the Ferus Gallery artists, Nagle took off in a direction of his own. He cites as seminal influences the work of Giorgio Morandi, the scale of Vermeer, the finish of hot rods, and the color of his childhood neighborhood. It all adds up to an exquisite small sculpture.
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Awards
1998 Flintridge Foundation Award
1997 Fellow of the American Craft Council
1996 Joan Danforth Endowed Faculty Chair, Mills College
1990-97 Faculty Research Grant, Mills College
1986 NEA Fellowship
1984 Faculty Research Grant, Mills College
1983 Mellon Grant
1981 Mellon Grant
1979 Lucie Stern Chair, Mills College
NEA Fellowship
1978 Adaline Kent Award, San Francisco Art Institute
1974 NEA Fellowship
Education
1961 B.A. San Francisco State College
Museum Collections
The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh
Charles A. Wustum Museum of Fine Arts, Racine, Wisconsin
The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu
Crocker Art Museum, Sacramento, California
Detroit Institute of the Arts
Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York
The George R. Gardiner Museum of Ceramic Art, Toronto
J. Patrick Lannan Foundation, Palm Beach, Florida
Kruithaus, s’Hertogenbosch, The Netherlands
Los Angeles County Museum of Art
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Mills College Art Gallery, Oakland, California
Mint Museum of Craft & Design, Charlotte, North Carolina
Musée de Plastique, Paris
The Newark Museum, Newark, New Jersey
Newport Harbor Art Museum, Newport Beach, California
Oakland Museum, Oakland, California
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Renwick Gallery, National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institute,
Washington, D.C.
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Shigaraki Museum, Japan
St. Louis Museum of Art, St. Louis, Missouri
Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Utah Museum of Fine Arts, Salt Lake City
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Selected Solo Exhibitions
2006 Garth Clark Gallery, New York
2005 Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco
Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica
2004 Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco
2003 Dolphin, Kansas City, Missouri
2002 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica
2001 Garth Clark Gallery, New York
Perimeter Gallery, Chicago
2000 Revolution Gallery, Ferndale, Michigan
1999 Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco
1998 Frank Lloyd Gallery, Santa Monica
1997 Revolution Gallery, Ferndale, Michigan
1996 Garth Clark Gallery, New York
Byron Cohen/Lennie Berkowitz Gallery for Contemporary Art,
Kansas City, Missouri
Revolution Gallery, Ferndale, Michigan
1995 Garth Clark Gallery, Los Angeles
Franklin Parrasch Gallery, New York
1994-93 Ron Nagle, A Survey Exhibition 1960-1993, The Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
1993 Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco
1992 Bella Artes Gallery, Santa Fe, New Mexico
Michael Himovitz Gallery, Sacramento
1991 Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco
1989 Charles Cowles Gallery, New York
1988 Rena Bransten Gallery, San Francisco
1985 Charles Cowles Gallery, New York
1984 Quay Gallery, San Francisco
Betsy Rosenfeld Gallery, Chicago
1983 Charles Cowles Gallery, New York
Delahunty Gallery, Dallas
1982 Quay Gallery, San Francisco
Greenberg Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri
1981 Charles Cowles Gallery, New York
1979 Currents 4, St. Louis Art Museum, St. Louis, Missouri
Matrix Gallery I, University Art Museum, University of California, Berkeley
1978 Adaline Kent Award Exhibition, San Francisco Art Institute
1977 Yaw Gallery, Birmingham, Michigan
1975 Quay Gallery, San Francisco
1968 Rolf Nelson Gallery, Los Angeles
Dilexi Gallery, San Francisco
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