Nathaniel Donnett
Houston, TX
Artist's Website
Artist's Statement:
My work deals with reflection, observations, social issues and the human condition from an African American perspective but not limited to the African American experience. I choose not to approach the work with single commentary but many possibilities so the work becomes multi-layered and can be approached from different angles of interpretation. My influences stem from art periods such as pop-art, dada, minimalism, conceptual, African and African American art/traditions as well as different periods in African American music.
I use discarded found/bought objects, mixed media, performance art and installations as materials and mediums. This process allows me to combine, construct, and reconstruct ideas, metaphors and aesthetics with narrative storytelling and improvisation as a musician along with spiritual symbolism. I find over the years this is how I have been processing my work.
Artist's Bio:
Nathaniel Donnett has participated in a visual art performance piece in 2007 with the choreographer Donald Byrd at the Wortham Center in the musical Bhangra Fever that was sponsored by the Society of Performance Arts. This included a total of four visual artists that created work on paper scrolls whom joined the dancers on stage as they performed as well. Nathaniel was awarded third place in 2007 11th Citywide 5A (African American Advisory Association) with the Museum of Fine Arts juried competition and best of show with 123 online art show exhibition in 2006.
He’s exhibited his work locally in Texas and nationally including California, Philadelphia, Louisiana, Florida, and Atlanta. He also has taught art (creative drawing) at a non profit organization called FUUSA (Families Under Urban and Social Attack) www.fuusa.org and coordinates events at a non profit organization called The Museum of Culture Arts Houston (MOCAH) www.mocah.org. He has given art appreciation talks at Prairie View A&M University, the Museum of Fine Arts Houston to the National Black MBA Association (NBMBAA) organization and a slide art presentation of his work at the Contemporary Arts Museum in Houston, Texas.
