Background
Nathan Chenery has been a practising artist since completing his Fine Art Degree with honours at York St John College in 2005. He was a finalist in the ‘Nationwide Mercury Music Prize – Art & Design Competition 2005’ and since then his art has been displayed and collected both nationally and internationally.

His work and inspirations
Nathan’s current work focuses on the core ideas of borders and horizons, an idea he has been exploring for over three years. His art is primarily concerned with ‘defining space’ - the relationships between two plains, such as earth and sky, and the tension between.

To Nathan, the concept of a horizon signifies a possible ‘utopia’ or ‘dystopia’ and the ‘un-definable’. He comments, “This focus has taken on a rigorous investigation, pushing and pulling borders and horizons. My latest work (as it tends to come in bursts) has more a focus on patterns and ways of filling or building space.”

In this series, Nathan uses lino prints, dry point etchings and drawings to hone these ideas of depth and perspective. Looking at straight lines, grids and the resulting intersecting forms, he creates a sense of open and closed space within his compositions - with a clear sense of positive and negative.

While his previous artworks have been more about mark making than colour, Nathan has paid close attention to his palette in this series, commenting, “that even where grey is used, up to five colours can go into the mix”. The results are exceptionally balanced and striking, drawing the viewer into the image.

Recent Exhibitions
Nathan has been involved with a number of exhibitions recently including: ‘Graphics - The process of print’ at Norman Rea Gallery, University of York, ‘Artmix’ at Castle Howard, York Open Studios and ‘Past and Present’ at ArtSpace. In 2008, Nathan’s work was showcased in the exhibition ‘Cases of Curiosity’ at the Joy Gallery in Dublin and Dartington Gallery in Devon. Nathan’s work has also been collected and exhibited in Ireland, Italy, Spain, America and the Hida Takayama Museum of Art in Japan.