Fascinated by the complex patterns of human life and nature, Nathan Beard sources his work from music and scientific methodologies like chaos theory, fractal geometry, quantum physics, and cosmology. His practice includes painting, as well as collage, printmaking, rug design, and conceptual projects that examine musical patterns and the Japanese technique of kintsugi.
His Exit Music series reflects this investigation into such patterns and processes. By placing strips of blue painter’s tape on the canvas or panel, Beard creates cyclidic patterns that augment the dimension and movement of “roughly-hewn serpentine forms floating in an expressionistic soup.” Composed of shifting color fields with varying degrees of hue and temperature, these richly layered paintings explore the interaction between order and chance—what Beard has described as “the weaving of human will with natural forces as a creative activity that sculpts reality to our ever-changing needs and desires.”
