Welcome to Tartarus, Welcome to Valhalla defines the landscape of the artist’s conceptual playing field. Skiles’ works are not an illustration of these places as much as constructions created out of the need to reconcile within their boundaries. Nathan Skiles’ work is a product of investigatory play more than an overt critique of the symbols of our culture. The sculptures come from a frustration with the dichotomy between affirming the legitimacy of democratic diplomacy while also preserving hostility to and from other countries.

Nathan Skiles will be showing new sculpture in an exhibition entitled Welcome to Tartarus, Welcome to Valhalla at Greene Contemporary from September 4, 2008 through October 5, 2008. There will be an opening reception on Wednesday September 3 from 6 to 9 pm. This will be the inaugural exhibition for Greene Contemporary in New York. Welcome to Tartarus, Welcome to Valhalla presents a convergence of two imaginary worlds in a confined cycle of imagery. Tartarus is a mythical pit of stagnation; a holding cell for judgment which may never come. Valhalla is a righteous land of eternal conflict, populated only by warriors fortunate enough to die in the heat of battle. Welcome to Tartarus, Welcome to Valhalla defines the landscape of the artist’s conceptual playing field. Skiles’ works are not an illustration of these places as much as constructions created out of the need to reconcile within their boundaries. Nathan Skiles’ work is a product of investigatory play more than an overt critique of the symbols of our culture. The sculptures come from a frustration with the dichotomy between affirming the legitimacy of democratic diplomacy while also preserving hostility to and from other countries. The sculptures speak of a convoluted culture. A remnant tire flag serves as a symbol of our prideful lust for mobility and individualism while also being the banner of hostile nationalism. The frozen cuckoo clock is the creation of an illogical object bread from superstition and reason. A tire distillery is formed as a machination of miraculous change usurping its popular conception as a means of prohibited libation. Skiles uses craft materials such as Styrofoam, felt and cardboard to create visual sublimations in which the viewer is able to suspend the recognition of the symbol and see both the object and the ideal it represents. Through these visual aides the work narrates an ideology based on absurdity, which can only generate personal meaning through disparate ideals. Nathan Skiles was born in Anderson, Indiana. He received his MFA from Montclair State University in Montclair, New Jersey and his BFA from Ringling College of Art and Design in Sarasota, Florida. This is his first solo exhibition with Greene Contemporary.