Nick Gentry. All images courtesy of the artist and Robert Fontaine Gallery, Miami.
The two blocks of real estate up to the intersection of NW 2nd Avenue and NW 23rd Street are paved with gold for Miami’s thriving contemporary spaces (Fredric Snitzer, Waltman Ortega Fine Art, Gallery Diet, Black Square Gallery, Whale & Star Studio, and Butter Gallery). A mural likened to a colorful stack of books rises high above those walking through the door of the Robert Fontaine Gallery in Wynwood, wedged between Miguel Paredes’ studio and Butter. The small, but airy white cube allowed Ocean Drive Magazine and the Invicta Watch Group to host an intimate showing of British artist Nick Gentry’s curious portraits, painted onto grids of 3.5-inch, A-drive floppy disks on wooden mounts. Also on view were six custom editions of Invicta’s timepieces employing a Gentry portrait on their faces.
A graduate of London’s Central Saint Martins, Gentry capably walks a dangerous line between instinctive, intellectual innovation, and mass-consumption novelty with his paintings that are thoughtfully brushed onto the surfaces of hundreds of disks (surprisingly, in mint condition) in dark grey and umber tones set against rock solid aqua, red, and yellow backgrounds. The eyes of his subjects are the circular drive motor hubs in the center, usually left untouched. Gentry calls the work “social art from the obsolete,” referring both to the extinct technology of his “canvases” and the inherent connection lapse between past and future; the use of these disks foreshadows a technologically-impregnated world where young, hip things (as his subjects are) are the only things worth preservation. Gentry’s work alludes to a double-cancellation: the application of the paint on the disk surface rendering it useless and the decline of a whole technological era, itself. Whatever the implications might be, each wide-eyed work tells the same story of careless, empty looks in the faces of those entrenched in the contemporary moment. No elderly faces, no children – anyone hear the intercom from Logan’s Run?
On opening night, Gentry floated quietly among the chatty patrons, occasionally riffing on the creative possibilities beyond painting and portraiture. “Sculpture, that would probably come next,” he said, “At least right now. Painting was always my focus but I love sculpture.” Undeniably, Gentry is an idealist. He insists that his passion for the work endures regardless of acceptance in the commercial or institutional arenas. “If people like the work, then that’s great. But it doesn’t stop me from continuing working. For me, I love what I do and I’ve had a great deal of support…the response here, if anything, is even greater in the U.S. than other places.”
Between the young artist and his own manifestations, what remains is the magnification of the process. Both idealism and memories reach their ends, even in the timeless vacuums of the gallery or museum space, but Gentry seems armed and ready to take on contemporary art’s “Lastday”. Start running.
Gallery director Robert Fontaine.
Invicta Artist Series: Nick Gentry.
