and/or/existence: Nathaniel Donnett & N. Masani Landfair

October 27 - December 11, 2022

Opening Reception: Thursday, October 27, 6-8pm

 There are many discorded conversations rooted in the fraught histories of this country that are neglected by what we know as history and public memory. Experiences as common as love and trauma, and involving feelings as universal as vulnerability, frustration, and ecstasy, a myriad of personal stories are distorted by and dismissed from the official narrative—one disguised under the face of the general consensus, but ultimately elaborated, preserved, and mechanically reproduced by the gatekeepers of power. Nathaniel Donnett and N. Masani Landfair are two artists that seek to address these complex histories that oscillate between the notions of observation and memory while incorporating the strategies of Black Aesthetic traditions. 

Nathaniel Donnett’s work discusses existential migration, African American music forms, othering, and the standards of beauty and intelligence critique. Working in collage, installation, performance, sculpture, and community, social, and participatory engaged projects, Donnett imbues every facet of each artwork with meaning and movement. Gathering inspiration and materials from his neighborhood in Houston, Donnett’s utilization of zippers, tambourine chimes, backpacks, and trash bags implies movement, air, and sound. 

N. Masani Landfair creates work that sparks a dialogue about how the misuse of the environment effects health issues, poverty, and climate change. Through collage and film making, Landfair stitches together forgotten fragments from the flotsam of our surroundings. The resulting dreamscapes are at once ephemeral and concrete, with composed juxtapositions about the harsh realities of homelessness, over-consumption, and solitude among others. Using undesirable materials, Landfair plays on the personal meanings tied to previously possessed objects to imbue empathy into melancholic compositions.

The artists in this exhibition show us that we can remove the dichotomies that obscure our view by gathering all the pieces and presenting them as a whole story. 

Nathaniel Donnett was born in Houston, Texas. Donnett received his B.A. in Fine Arts from Texas Southern University and his MFA from Yale University School of Art. Nathaniel is the recipient of the 2022 John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship, a 2020 Dean's Critical Practice Research Grant from Yale, and a 2020 Art and Social Justice Initiative Grant, also from Yale. Other awards include a 2017 Houston Arts Alliance Individual Artist Grant, a 2015 Idea Fund/Andy Warhol Foundation Grant, and a 2014 Harpo Foundation Grant. His work has been exhibited at The Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Bentonville, AK; the Virginia Museum of Fine Art, Richmond, VA; the Mennello Museum, Orlando, FL; The Ulrich Museum, Wichita, KS; Project Row Houses, Houston, TX, The Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art, Virginia Beach, VA, The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston, Houston, TX, and The New Museum, New York, NY.

N. Masani Landfair grew up in the heavily industrial community of South Chicago which contrasted constantly with the teachings and ways for her Southern Grandparents. They lived uninterrupted with much of the southern culture from their transition through the Great Migration. These influences shaped her views of beauty and worth in the simple to complex dilapidations. N. Masani Landfair has shown at Museum of Science Industry’s Black Creativity (first place winner), Zhou B. Art Center, 33 Contemporary Gallery, Prizm Art Fair, Global Art Project in Italy, Mexico, Prizm Art Fair, and the San Francisco International Arts Festival. N. Masani Landfair lives in Northern Georgia.