Train Brain, an exhibition of new paintings by Chris Nau, will be on view in the Jewett Art Gallery at Wellesley College from August 25 – October 13, 2018. Nau’s paintings in this show, which ride the line between abstraction and representation, all began from sketches made while riding trains, viewing the landscape outside in motion and in fragments.

Wellesley Jewett Center — Led by an Upside Down Bunny, Chris Nau, acrylic on canvas, 28 x 36″, 2017

The resulting images are suggestive of recognizable forms, but defy easy categorization. Nau observes reality from a fragmentary perspective in motion, and crystallizes his observations into abstract sketches. The process of translating these into the paintings involves a careful balance of abstraction, a resistance to conventional representation, and a grounded sense of tactility and dimensionality. His deft manipulation of implied shadow, geometric form, and surface textures lends a kind of assumed
reality to the subjects of Nau’s paintings. They refer to the idea of an actual object or scene, even if the viewer cannot always immediately name the implied referent.

This exhibition will be on view in the Jewett Art Gallery from August 25 through October 13, 2018 and is free and open to the public.

The Gallery, located on the 2nd (main) floor of the Jewett Arts Center at Wellesley College, is open 10am – 4pm Monday through Friday and 12pm – 4pm on Saturdays and Sundays.

For more information about the exhibition, contact Gallery Director Samara Pearlstein at 781-283- 2043 or spearls2@wellesley.edu.

Chris Nau lives and works in New York City. He studied zoology and painting at Oregon State University, earning a BFA in painting from the University of Washington, and an MFA in painting from the Massachusetts College of Art. His work has been exhibited at Galerie Kristine Hamann in Wismar, Germany; The Boston Center for the Arts; The Hunterdon Museum of New Jersey; The Tegnerforbundet center for drawing in Olso, Norway; the Drawing Center in New York, NY; The Dam Stultrager Gallery (NYC and Berlin); and the G.A.S. Station Gallery in Berlin.

Nau is a recipient of a New York Foundation for the Arts Fellowship, as well as a Pollock Krasner Foundation Grant. In 2008 he was selected for a Dieu Donné workspace residency in papermaking projects and a Jordan Schnitzer Print Residency at the Sitka Center for Art and Ecology in Otis, Oregon. Nau is represented by Galerie Kristine Hamann in Wismar, Germany. In 2014 he joined the United Scenic Artists 829 New York local of the International Association of Theatrical Stage Employees union.
When not working in his studio he paints scenery for television shows, movies, opera, and theatre.