Natalie Frank

Biography

b. 1980 Austin, Texas
Lives and works in New York, NY

Natalie Frank’s paintings explore relationships of power as they function within issues of identity, sexuality, religion, and history. The personal, political, and theatrical collide in her representations of the beautiful and the grotesque.

Frank’s paintings are peopled by figures of the in-between — characters ill-defined by gender and sexuality, reality and fantasy, presence and absence. Her life-sized figures assume a variety of roles, both allegorical and highly personal, which recur throughout the paintings. Blurring the lines between the perverse and the everyday, Frank’s paintings engage the viewer as a complicit voyeur into their strange reality.

New York-based painter Natalie Frank was born in Austin Texas in 1980. She earned an M.F.A. in visual arts at Columbia University’s School of the Arts in 2006 and holds a B.A. in studio art from Yale University. In 2003-2004, she was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship for study at the National Academy of Fine Art in Oslo, Norway. In 1997 and 1999, Frank attended the Slade School in London, and in 2001 the École des Beaux Arts in Paris.

Solo exhibitions include shows at Arndt and Partner, Zurich; Mitchell-Innes and Nash, New York; Briggs Robinson Gallery, New York, and Space Gallery, St. Barth. Other recent projects include group exhibitions at Lu Magnus, New York (co-curator); The Rose Art Museum, Watham, MA; Hezi Cohen Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel; The National Academy Museum, New York; The Slought Foundation, Philadelphia, PA; the Brattleboro Museum, Brattleboro, VT; Arndt and Partner, Berlin, Germany; and Jack Tilton Gallery, New York.

Solo Exhibitions

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2012
Space Gallery St Barth, My Noon, My Midnight, My Talk, My Song, St. Barth’s, French West Indies

2008
Arndt & Partner, Zurich, Desire Comes Later (March 7 – April 12)

2007
Mitchell-Innes & Nash, New York, NY, Where She Stops (September 7 – October 13)

2006
Briggs Robinson Gallery, New York, NY, Unveiling (January 26 – March 11)

Selected Group Exhibitions

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2014
Richard J. Massey Foundation for Arts and Sciences, Natalie Frank/Voices of Rwanda, Untitled (paintings of women survivors of the Rwandan genocide and their oral histories on film) New York, NY, accompanied by book with contributions by Linda Nochlin, Lawrence Weschler, Elizabeth Sackler, et. al (upcoming)

2012
Jane’s Gallery, Eden Rock, Kim McCarty, Natalie Frank, Alyssa Monks, St. Barths, French West Indies (February)

2011
New York Academy of Art, Iconomancy, New York, NY (November)
Florida Atlantic University Museum, Figured Spaces: Selections from the John Morrissey Collection, Artists include: Anj Smith, Hilary Harkness, and Mickalene Thomas, Boca Raton, FL (upcoming October) accompanied by symposium lead by Linda Nochlin and catalogue Norwood, Group Show, Artists include: Inka Essenhigh, Natalie Frank, Anna Gaskell, Kysa Johnson, David X. Levine, Kristine Moran, Peter Opheim, William Powhida, Nicolas Rule, Shinique Smith, New York, NY (upcoming September 21 – August 2012) Co-curator, Lu Magnus, New York, NY, A Room of Her Own, Artists include: Paula Rego, Hilary Harkness, Dasha Shishkin, Mickalene Thomas, Emily Noelle Lambert and Eve Sussman / Rufus Corporation, New York, NY (May 7 – June 19) Lu Magnus, What the Thunder Said, New York, NY (January 13 – March 14) Eden Rock Gallery, Eden Rock, Uncovered, St. Barth’s, French West Indies (December 20 – January 31) Noel Baza Fine Art, Bare, Naked and Nude, San Diego, CA (November 6 – December 18) in conjunction with my inclusion in Bram Dijkstra’s book, Naked: the Nude in America

2010
The Rose Art Museum, Waltham, MA, Regarding Painting, (October) Hezi Cohen Gallery, Tel Aviv, Israel, Fresh Apples, Barnaby Furnas, Rosson Crow, Marcel Dzama, Justin Lieberman, Erik Parker, Kamrooz Aram, Shay Kun, Kim Dorland (July – August)

2009
National Academy Museum, New York, NY, Reconfiguring the Body in American Art, 1820-2009, (July 8-November 15, 2009) Slought Foundation, Philadelphia, PA The Return of the Horse, (November 2009)

2008
V&A Gallery, New York, I Like it a Little
The Rose Museum, Waltham, MA, Environments and Empires

2007
Arndt & Partner, Berlin, Germany, Aggression of Beauty II

2006
Jack Tilton Gallery, New York, NY, The Armory Show
Jack Tilton Gallery, New York, NY, School Days

2005
Contemporary Art Fair, New York, NY, AAF
LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University, New York, NY, Drawing as a Verb
31 Grand, Brooklyn, NY, Dead Kids Do Nothing
Buia Gallery, New York, NY, In the Ring Wallach Gallery, Columbia University, New York, NY, First Year MFA Show
LeRoy Neiman Gallery, Columbia University, New York, NY, Panoply

2004
55 Broad Street, New York, NY, Wednesdays at the Wall
Gallerie 21:26, Oslo, Norway, Representing the Figure

2002
Jonathan Edwards’ Master’s Home, Yale University, New Haven, CT, My Collection: Gary Haller (catalogue)
Jonathan Edwards’ Master’s Home, Yale University, New Haven, CT, Celebrating
30 Years of Women at Yale (catalogue), 2000
The Yale Center for British Art, New Haven, CT, The Modern Form

Bibliography

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“Arts+,” The New York Sun, September, 12, 2007
Cohen, David. “The Fineries of Figurative Painting,” The New York Sun, September 20, 2007
Cohen, David. “Art Starts on September 6,” The New York Sun, August 31, 2007
Cohen, David. “Gallery Going,” The New York Sun, July 14, 2005, p. 16
Crow, Kelly. “The 23 Year Old Masters,” The Wall Street Journal, April 14, 2006
Dijkstra, Bram. Naked: The Nude in America. New York: Rizzoli, 2010.
Douglas, Sarah. “Student Princes,” Art and Auction, March 2006
Finch, Charlie. “Frankincense,” Artnet.com Magazine, September 21, 2007
Finch, Charlie. “The Seduction of Natalie Frank,” Artnet, February, 2006
Finch, Charlie. “Toys in the Attic,” Artnet, October 11, 2005
“Goings on About Town.” The New Yorker, October 1, 2007
Haller, Dr. Gary; Heuer, Megan (editors), 30 Years: Women Artists at Yale, Jonathan Edwards College and The Women’s Center, Yale University, 2000
Honigman, Ana Finel. “Natalie Frank in Conversation with Ana Finel Honigman,” The Saatchi Gallery Online Daily Magazine, October 1, 2007
Johnson, Ken. “Art Listings,” The New York Times, March 3, 2006
Johnson, Ken. “Group Review,” The New York Times, July 29, 2005
Kelley, Aimee; Saint, Lily (editors). Crowd, Summer 2002

Awards

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Dong Kingman Fellowship, New York, NY, 2005-6
Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Second Artist Grant, Quebec, Canada, 2005
Viar Merit Fellowship, Columbia University, New York, NY, 2004-6
Fulbright Scholarship, Painting: Year long study at the National Academy of Fine Art, Oslo, Norway; investigation of Edward Munch, 2003-4
Yale Graduation Art Award, Jonathan Edwards’ College, 2002
Sudler Grant, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 1999–2002
Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant, Quebec, Canada, 2001
Robert Hilgendorf Traveling Fellowship, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 2001
Mellon Undergraduate Research Scholarship, Yale University, New Haven, CT, 2000–2001

Links & Downloads

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http://www.natalie-frank.com