Turning Neon into Art: Patrick Nash Returns after 20 Year Hiatus (Garment District, Manhattan)

My friend Patrick Nash, who has kept his talent for creating fine art like the proverbial lamp under the bushel for two decades, surfaced on the New York art scene in the last few weeks with a show at SL Gallery.

Tonight he gave a Q&A about his work and career, painting a picture of the East Village as it used to be, full of abandoned and semi-abandoned buildings and full of people who saw in the devastated urban landscape an invitation to create. Eventually, however, he invested his time in something more remunerative than pure art to start Patrick Nash Design, which has done all kinds of amazing installations for big and small businesses and well-known artists. It was only when Bill Schwinghammer invited Patrick to install a show in his gallery that Patrick's love of art for art's sake (and neon for neon's sake) was rekindled. Or maybe the love was always there but the bandwidth wasn't. 

In any event, as he related during the Q&A, his 20 years of creating signs and installations for others combined with his always active imagination, led him to create one amazing piece after another, like the work in the photo above, a delicate argon-infused circle around a block of cement suspended like a thought bubble over our heads.

Subway Artist (No. 3 Train under Manhattan)

So this guy sits down and just starts drawing the guy opposite him. Takes him about 90 seconds to produce a picture. Enough time to create a pleasing likeness and elicit a donation from the subject, who takes the rendering with a smile.

Bus Stop in Black & White (West Hollywood, Los Angeles)

A very cool series of sculptures by Yi Hwan Kwon called "Bus Stop" just outside the West Hollywood Park. No matter what angle you look at them from, they look two-dimensional, and yet they're not.

Dan Flavin (Dia:Beacon, Beacon, NY)

Smiling Bird Ladies and Man with Umbrella in Times Square

Smiling, feathery women (promoting Cirque du Soleil's Wintuk) on a drizzly NY morning. 

Riverside Park

Someone(s) created art out of driftwood along the Hudson River. Rising every 30 yards or so, the signpost-like constructions remind me of something the "Others" on Lost might have made to terrorize and/or confuse the hapless victims of Oceanic Flight 815. This is just one sample of his/her/their creations.