San Pedro Arts, Culture & Entertainment District News

Suppose a painter's day job consists of long hours of skilled labor in a tire shop, forming and shaping various rubber compounds to demanding specifications. Self-described "tire man" Nate Jones found his work environment and its ubiquitous rubber shavings ripe for reassignment. The impulse of Arte Povera (or "impoverished art") is referenced here for its rejection of the scientific rationalism and technological design prevalent in Modernist art of the 50's and 60's, as well as its embrace of unconventional and commonplace materials often presented in absurd, jarring and comical works of assemblage and sculpture. Nate Jones successfully assimilates these strategies in an exhibition of quirky works that mine the potential of the discarded, the remnant or byproduct. Tire shavings are colorized (or not), manipulated and assembled, often with expressionist zeal, to mime conventional painting and sculpture with equal shares of irreverence, intelligence, and wit.

 

Nate Jones studied at Academia di Belle Arti, Florence, Italy, and received his BFA in painting and drawing from California State University, Long Beach in 2005. His work has been included in numerous exhibitions in Southern California and Italy.