Nathan Slate Joseph

Many an artist calls upon found objects to materialize his vision, but Nathan Slate Joseph insists his are “chosen” in the pursuit of making works about expansion and contraction.

Sundaram Tagore 位於半山的大宅，猶如小型藝術館,當中有畫作、雕塑、在屋內各據一方，藝術家來自世界各地，以藝術創作展開跨越時空的文化對話。他已大半生的時間收藏藝術品，有籍藝術作品認識各地文化，由此為人生帶來最大的快樂。

The decision to bring together Nathan Slate Joseph's paintings and sculpture and Taylor Kuffner's elegant sound installation, a stimulating combination of traditional Balinese gamelan music and robotic technology, was an inspired one. Both artists' works have their own distinctive meditative, aesthetic, and narrative qualities, but placed together these qualities are strikingly enhanced.

「當我們大為謙卑的時候，便是我們最接近偉大的時候。（We come nearest to the great when we are great in humility）」這是曾獲諾貝爾文學獎的印度大文豪泰戈爾（Rabindranath Tagore）讓人耳熟能詳的名句。他周遊列國，與徐悲鴻、譚雲山為友，對促進東西文化最落力，描寫也最為細膩，甚至影響中國一代詩風。個半世紀後，泰戈爾對文化融通的深層視野仍然像基因遺傳在第五代子孫 Sundaram Tagore 的血液裏。「當我曾曾祖父拿到諾貝爾文學獎後，把獎金都捐到大學去，他深信人道主義（humanity）而非民族主義（nationalism）會令世界變好。我也深受影響，藝術不是商品也不只講求美輪美奐，最重要是有沒有達到歷史解碼的功能。」Sundaram Tagore這印度大文豪之後如是說。他更侃侃而談「文化衝擊」作為自己收藏和經營事業的單一準則與品味。

他，將廢棄鋼片漂染焊接成五彩繽紛的畫作，打造視覺感官體驗，這出自以色列與美籍畫家和雕塑家 Nathan Slate Joseph之手。他，搜集最傳統的銅鑼， 連接電腦控制的裝置，打造出獨特的聲音與旋律，這來自美國聲音裝置藝術家 Taylor Kuffner 之創。從視覺到聽覺，利用自然週遭的事物，搭配新穎先進的創作方法，兩個人將自己的作品帶到香港。

藝術家除了從生活獲取靈感，生生不息的自然世界，也是激發創作力的繆思女神。像來自以色列的美籍雕塑家Nathan Slate Joseph，善於利用經受風吹雨打「處理」的立體鋼片實現創作夢；而來自美國的聲音裝置藝術家Taylor Kuffner，則喜歡利用峇里傳統樂器打造一系列能奏出天籟之音的藝術裝置。Sundaram Tagore Gallery現正上演兩位藝術家的聯展「EYE TO EAR」，置身場館，不論視覺、聽覺都能享受藝術與大自然合作的成果。

After a brief hiatus, the Hong Kong branch of Sundaram Tagore Gallery will reopen with a new look and an exciting exhibition on September 26, coinciding with the gallery's fifth anniversary in Hong Kong.

Sundaram Tagore announces the reopening of the Hong Kong branch following a complete interior renovation. Sundaram Tagore Gallery, located on the ground and first floor of the Lee Roy Commercial Building at 57-59 Hollywood Road, was the first international gallery to open in Hong Kong and the reopening coincides with the gallery's fifth anniversary.

Sundaram Tagore Gallery has been named one of the top galleries in the world by Blouin Artinfo and Modern Painters magazine.

While their styles are vastly different from one another, Nathan Slate Joseph, 69, and the late Sohan Qadri are nonetheless both known for their innovative painting techniques. Various pieces by the two artists are currently displayed alongside each other at Sundaram Tagore Gallery.

Step into the India Art Fair and you could well be a part of the hype, the hubris and the bazaar that the Indian galleries love to load on your senses. But it is the foreign galleries that have added the pulling down and keeping low and focused fare.

Sundaram Tagore Gallery will present a group exhibition, "Facing East’, of works that transcend cultural boundaries while reflecting Eastern elements. The show represents artists of Korean, Indian, Japanese, Vietnamese, and Uzbeki-Israeli origins. These works define an aesthetic language of East-West dialogue, featuring artists Kim Joon, Nathan Slate Joseph, Sohan Qadri, Hiroshi Senju, Robert Yasuda, Nhat Tran, Amina Ahmed, and Taylor Kuffner. Through their works, these artists struggle to create a sense of beauty that is universal through a wide range of mediums.

“The sky was red. It was like a volcano had erupted in the clouds,” Uzbek-Israeli artist Nathan Slate Joseph whispers to me in his thick Brooklyn accent. He is recalling the year 1948, when bomb blasts shook Israel and he was just a boy. Joseph pauses before explaining, “When I create sculptures, I go back to the colours and materials I was raised around. It’s like an act of arresting memories.” Indeed it is as though Joseph is gazing into the depths of his childhood when he constructs his deeply coloured metal works."

"Emeralds, rubies, sapphires, 24-karat gold. Aquamarine, topaz, amber, turquoise. The sizzling colours of the pigments in the paintings and sculptures of Nathan Slate Joseph nearly leap off the walls of the gallery; looking at them, you might think the artist has ground up precious stones to create his works. The colours are so saturated yet so organic that it’s difficult to resist the urge to touch them."

"When the New York-based art historian and gallerist Sundaram Tagore decided to open a space in Hong Kong, he brought a wave of fresh inspiration to Hollywood Road. A descendant of poet and Nobel Prize winner Rabindranath Tagore, the gallerist immediately inserted his intellectual edge into the district, with a series of historically important, and sometimes museum-quality, exhibitions"

"Standing in a room of Nathan Slate Joseph works is a meditative experience. One is drawn into a tranquility that seems at odds with the expected dissonance that such a variance of colors could create. Joseph surprisingly presents us with a playful and joyous symphony of colors."

"Famed New Yorker Nathan Slate Joseph's exhibition opens in Sundaram Tagore Gallery from May 5 – June 10. The Israeli-born artist unveils a new series of stunningly vibrant works. Scouring the streets of the city, he gathers scrap metal which he assembles into paintings and vessels. Intensely coloured, Joseph's art blurs the boundaries between painting and sculpture, East and West, nature and the manmade."

"The Uzbek-Israeli artist Nathan Slate Joseph has had a life-long engagement with metal and color: For Joseph metal is something that is alive, something he relates to. Combined with his astute understanding of color; Joseph's art speaks to the nuances of the environment and his rich memories of time and place"

"By exposing pigment-stained metal to rain, wind and sunshine, Uzbek-Israeli artist Nathan Slate Joseph achieves unpredictable colors on his new steel paintings and sculptures."

"The Art section of Hong Kong International Art and Antiques Fair 2009 will feature exceptional works by celebrated artists in a diversity of artistic styles and media. Sundaram Tagore Gallery of New York, Beverly Hills and Hong Kong will show work that encourages a dialogue between the East and West. Featured artists include Hiroshi Senju(Japan), Sohan Qadri (India) and Kim Joon (Korea) along with Susan Weil (USA), Natvar Bhavsar (India)."

"A Hong Kong gallery is taking an upbeat attitude by presenting major names in its exhibitions [...] Even as galleries along the city's arts and antiques hub, Hollywood Road axe show and offer fewer high-priced works to tide over the global credit crunch, Sundaram Tagore continues to showcase major pieces by the artists it represents."

Art historian Sundaram Tagore's doctoral thesis looks at Indian artists' response to European modernisation from the 1940s to 1980s. As a curator, however, his focus is more on the here and now. Hence the title of his gallery's latest group exhibition by 18 international artists, which opens today at the Sundaram Tagore Gallery's Hong Kong branch.

Features Hiroshi Senju, Sohan Qadri, Nathan Slate Joseph and Hosook Kang. Photographs by Marc Baptiste.
Also includes an interview with Sundaram Tagore.

"...Less-colour-saturated but no less intuitive are the pieces by Natvar Bhavsar, who sprinkles pigment delicately on his canvases in an echo of Jackson Pollock, although the works' understated quality reflects a gentle Asian sensibility that's the opposite of the American painter's frenetic, ego-driven style..."

Artwork by Nathan Slate Joseph - a celebration of texture & color, East & West, and the industrial & the natural; "Spices and Silk" opened Saturday, May 31st at the Sundaram Tagore Gallery in Beverly Hills. Nathan Slate Joseph's work has been heavily influenced by the colors characteristic of countries along the Silk Road - Morocco, India, China, Indonesia, and Mongolia. The exhibit consists of steel and pigment reliefs and vessels.

Curator Sundaram Tagore explains, "Nathan's work is a mix of East and West, and although he has been a serious part of the fabric of New York City's art scene for many years, his work has a universal element to it." The opening was a great success and the exhibition will run through June 30th.

"Sundaram Tagore, a New York-based curator and gallerist, has announced the opening of a Hong Kong Gallery. The Gallery focuses on a dialogue between the cultures of East a West while filling the need for better representation of international art in Hong Kong."

"Art, globalization and inter-cultural dialogue are themes dear to Tagore. The latter populates his conversation and is reflected in the work he shows. Recent exhibits at his Chelsea gallery have included the metalwork of an Israeli-American, Nathan Slate Joseph; the lush, Scandinavian-influenced paintings by the Indian artist Sohan Qadri; and the ethereal waterfalls of Japanese painter Hiroshi Senju. Tagore's gallery statemnt, afterall, is to develop exhibitions and host events that "engage in spiritual, social and aesthetic dialogues with traditions other than our own."..."

"Nathan's work is a mix of East and West, and although he has been a serious part of the fabric of New York City's art scene for many years, his work has a universal element to it."

"Hong Kong's ambition to be Asia's art hub received another boost with the recent arrival of three top galleries: Gagosian, Sundaram Tagore and Tang Contemporary. Sundaram Tagore opened on the city's gallery street, Hollywood Road, on May 9."

"Tagore's Galleries in New York, Los Angeles and now Hong Kong combine visual arts with other forms such as poetry reading, dance performances, music, films and charity funding."

"Tagore explains how his passion for art has enabled him to dissolve differences in cultures and bring them together in a unique and creative way, denoting that art can transcend all culture and social standings."

Sundaram Tagore Gallery Hong Kong will hold its grand opening on May 9 at 57-59 Hollywood Road. The inaugural group show will consist of five Eastern and five Western artists chosen from among those the gallery represents. The great grandson of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore, Sundaram Tagore comes from 14 generations of artists, writers and poets. Tagore also has galleries in New York and Beverly Hills.

"Gallerist Sundaram Tagore said, "All these artists have spent their lives working in and exploring different Eastern and Western cultures - including India, China, Nepal, Japan, Italy, Holland and America. Together they create an incredible mosaic and foster an intercultural dialogue that reflects a diversity of thought and artistic style."

Workers installed a series of gleaming steel sculptures created by renowned New York artist Nathan Slate Joseph, being exhibited in Gettysburg this weekend n cinjunction with 'The Gettysburg Festival:Prelude and Portraits'..."

"[Nathan Slate Joseph's] reliefs equally suggest the natural world and the exuberant energies of Abstract Expressionism."

"Today, everything is condensed in time. What took 100 years, today takes about ten years and that's largely because of the internet revolution."

"...Now working with painted paper ritually immersed in ink and dye and then serrated, Qadri has developed a 'new' methodology of painting beautiful spiritual work where the artists is in a calm introspective state..."

"...The salty blooms and ocher depths of many of [Joseph's] steel-relief paintings evoke not only the Mediterranean hub of Western culture but also its spokes, spanning the compass... "

"...a group of four gloriously shimmering works [by Hiroshi Senju] from this acclaimed series."

(Joseph's work appears in the publication image. His piece graces the dining room wall of Jean Georges, a New York restaurant that overlooks Columbus Circle.)

(featuring the painting A Line in the Sand by Nathan Slate Joseph)

"...Natvar Bhavsar is a color field painter who works in pure pigment. He is largely credited for bringing a spiritual element to the absrtact expressionism movement in America..."

Joseph's work appears in a publication image of a Los Angeles home designed by Richard Landry of Landry Design Group.

"Nathan Slate Joseph's work uniquely combines the large-scale exuberance of Abstract Expressionism with the laissez-faire mellowness of found-object art."

"Facade designed by Nathan Slate Joseph in collaboration with Caples and Jefferson Architects."

"Harlem New Modernism"
-The New York Times, January 31, 2002_-

"The gradations of rust that result are enhanced by a variety of other hues, and the final product has the effect of a carefully composed painting."

"Nathan Slate Joseph is a collaborative artist who partners with nature. As he dabs, flings and brushes galvanized steel surfaces with earthy inorganic pigments and then treats them with acids to faciliatate their breakdown, he serves as the front man while weather toils away unnoticed in the back of the house. Making a studio of the great outdoors--or at least a potato field, the artist paints with wind, rain, and sunlight."