Barcelona based designer and contemporary artist Nadia Jaber in an artist interview with Anjali Singh for the Asian Curator
“By assembling together different painting styles curated from my visual exposure to online inputs I create single new compositions. Like a post-digitalist magpie fusing found digital objects to generate an analogue version – using my own algorithm.”
Contemporary artist Nadia Jaber
Artist interview
Please tell us a little about yourself. What brought you to the world of art and how did you start?
I have a degree in Economics and a professional background in Marketing and Communication. I worked as a Product Manager for a couple of multinationals and realised that the job did not fulfil me. So, I decided to go to New York to study a postgraduate course in Design at Parsons for a summerin 2011. Ended up settling in NYC for a year and a half and started experimenting with different artistic practices there.
At first, I was drawn to photography. The compositions created spontaneously by the contraposition of bright colours on doors and windows along with the walls worn by the passage of time and by the intervention of graffiti, fascinated me. I used to spend hours cycling around Bushwick, Williamsburg or in Bed-Stuy – where I lived at the time – capturing those compositions with a camera. After that I started with collage, inspired by a friend and artist who does incredible works in this technique, and I kept experimenting until I realised that painting offered me the freedom and flexibility I needed to create those compositions that I saw on the streets.
What is the primary role of a contemporary artist? How do you describe yourself in the context of challenging people’s perspectives via your work?
I believe that art comes from a part of yourself, from a reflection or a question that you have inside you. In the quest of resolving it, you develop a role that is useful to others. Creating something that connects and vibrates within the viewer. I found that happens more intensely by either developing a new perspective – your unique voice and style. By expressing your perception of a new way to look at your environment, while using techniques and materials that enhance the transformation of the idea to materiality. Ultimately that would be difficult to happen in a meaningful way without breaking some of the established rules or molding them so they work at your favor. It is the ultimate challenge of an artist to be the leader of the next art revolution.
In this series I am reflecting on how social media influences and transforms our visual spectrum and therefore our creative outputs. In a way I am reflecting not just on our visual ADHD but on what the mysterious machines behind social media are making us want, or think we want, and what that means for art appreciation.
Algorithms run the show
Right now, hot names, likes and shares are replacing the gallery’s influencer model. Mere moments after an artwork is completed, it is noticed by collectors on Instagram. While influencers seem to hold much power over what we see and ‘like’, it is really algorithms that run the show. And these ‘problem solving’ programs tend to make unnatural choices that don’t reflect reality – literally so, as seen (or not) in the case of nudity and censorship.
Also art shared online is ridiculously easy to duplicate and make your own. As Richard Prince said about his “New Portraits” series, my phone has become part of my studio, a bigger part than it use to be. I didn’t have to put things aside or made room for it because for better or worse I am digital native, and the digital realm is already part of my life. By assembling together different painting styles curated from my visual exposure to online inputs I create single new compositions. Like a post-digitalist magpie fusing found digital objects to generate an analogue version – using my own algorithm. The assemblage between the parts is done by sewing, the pieces form structures in constant dialogue in terms of shape, colour, and materiality.
“I have to admit that I myself have a bit of ADHD, and I am most challenged with the conceptual difficulty of being constant with a given creative subject matter and not changing direction towards a new territory that it is also tempting me.”
Contemporary artist Nadia Jaber
How do you deal with the conceptual difficulty and uncertainty of creating work?
I have to admit that I myself have a bit of ADHD. And I am most challenged with the conceptual difficulty of being constant with a given creative subject matter. Not changing direction towards a new territory that it is tempting me, is a challenge. For instance, I have been working on my current “Floral Arrangements” series since confinement. This was in mid-March 2020 in Spain. While developing this series, I am also conceptualising two other series on the side. I am highly tempted to starting work on them. I believe that as important as it is to create work, it is to deepen effort on a given subject matter. Therefore, I set timings for myself.
For example, I plan to be working on the current series at least until the end of the year. Setting time frames helps me stay motivated. I create as many different pieces for the current creative territory as possible. After I achieve a deadline, I move to the next one and never look back. Or maybe just glance back and feel satisfied with the work done.
What would you call your style? Lets talk about the evolution of your practice over the years. Tell us about your commitment to your current medium.
Experimentation is something I can’t resist; I’ve always been a very curious person who loves new challenges. I started painting in 2012 employing Automatism, which allowed me to investigate textures and materials, focusing on painting by emotion and intuition. That gave me the space and freedom to develop my pictorial language. Not forcing myself to follow a closed line, but rather letting myself be carried away by what excited me.
Asymmetry
I started the “Asymmetry” series in 2017 intending to create with more geometric and textured compositions. That led me to experiment with resin and other materials such as iron powder. I also started working with wool, which leaves no residue and gives a very intense effect, both visually and tactily. As in marquetry technique, I pieced together different patterns and textures to create a single new composition, with the pieces applied in a jigsaw formation rather than in layers. This results in paintings with much more daring and intense compositions, whilst still maintaining spaces with layers and textures that resemble the style of my past paintings.
“Working between form and abstraction, allowing me to riff between styles and idea; cutting and scratching them like a DJ would to create something entirely new.”
Contemporary artist Nadia Jaber
About:blank
In mid 2018, I started experimenting with sewing on canvas. I conceptualized the “about:blank” series. I am currently feeling very comfortable in this dynamic medium – which I call “multiple styles”. Working between form and abstraction, allowing me to riff between styles and idea; cutting and scratching them like a DJ would to create something entirely new.
Floral Arrangements
Currently, I am working on a series called “Floral Arrangements”. I started this series during confinement. I was inspired by the isolation and natural surroundings of my home studio, in a natural park on the hills of Barcelona. Spring blossomed into a million of different flowers. I was just allowed to walk by while walking my dogs. Being isolated in a natural isolated space, made me be more in tune with nature than before. Subsequently, the green shades that I had neglected for years in my paintings started to gain dominance. As a result of the quiet that came with the confinement, multiple colors fades into just a few tonalities. The outcome is more neutral paintings with the same technique of my “about:blank” series (sewing on canvas and multiple styles).
What inspires you? Lets talk about your frameworks, references and process.
In “The medium is the message theory” by Marshall McLuhan (1964) he proposes that a medium itself, not the content it carries, should be the focus of study, as the personal and social consequences of any medium—that is, of any extension of ourselves—result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs. For McLuhan, it was the medium itself that shaped and controlled “the scale and form of human association and action”. A light bulb does not have content in the way that a newspaper has articles or a television has programs, yet it is a medium that has a social effect; that is, a light bulb enables people to create spaces during nighttime that would otherwise be enveloped by darkness.
Art in the digital age
In our digital age, we can be at the same time perfectly virtually connected and perfectly physically isolated. By “being online” using any social or web platform, there is a new environment created. This allows a new array of previously non-existent possibilities to the medium. As darkness will come after dawn if the light bulb was not invented, the exposure that we had to art was limited before the explosion of social media. Not that before we were in total darkness, we did have a lantern but now is like the sun doesn’t even set. First, would the result of our art be the same? Would we be reflecting on the same subjects? And lastly, would we be tempted to try or incorporate certain techniques into our art processes? I doubt it. We are now part of the global village, whether we like it or not.
Algorithmic syncretism
Both “about:blank” and “Floral Arrangements” series are a collection of paintings built up around samples of other inspiring paintings that I have come across while navigating the Instagram vastness —thanks to the insatiable work of its algorithm. The canvases could be the ultimate collage of the current algorithmic syncretism. This work acknowledges not only my belonging to the digital art revolution but points rather gratefully to art’s ultimate dimension, it’s digital kingdom. Nobody would question that the art world is increasingly virtual and that its health hasn’t been better in decades.
So the question here begs: are technologies to blame or to praise? Andy Warhol, one of the most accomplished ambassadors of appropriation, was ecstatic after discovering the wonders of silk-screening. In one of the few interviews available online Warhol told to Art News’s reporter Gene Swenson a rather legendary line: “I think everybody should be a machine. I think everybody should like everybody.”
Lets talk about your career, or if you prefer artistic journey. What were your biggest learning and hiccups along the way?
I learned a great deal about how to speak about my art in person – something quite daring to most painters – as I participated twice at The Other Art Fair by Saatchi Art in NY. It is a different art fair in the way the artist is present in the booth -not the gallerist- and it is the artist who directly speaks and meets with the collector. It is a much more intense experience than the opening evening in a gallery, since the fair itself lasts four days and there are tons of people attending to, hence by the end of the last day I had almost lost my voice!
What are you looking for when you look at other artists’ work? Which shows, performances and experiences have shaped your own creative process? Who are your maestros?
I tend to look for a sense of authenticity, of honesty in an artist’s work, combined with a neat execution. Ultimately something that makes say “wow, I really cannot do that” and then urge me to try to do it. For instance, I have been always inspired by Basquiat´s use of color and language, the lightness of Cy Twombly freely-scribbled, calligraphic and graffiti-like works, the vibrance of de Kooning’s lyrical abstraction compositions.
From current contemporary painters, I enjoy the techniques of both Oscar Murillo’s and Taylor White’s large scale paintings, the eclectic compositions by Allison Zuckerman, the voluptuous and colourist shapes by Cristina BanBan, the dark femininity by Sarah Slappey, the brilliantly mix of different mediums by Trey Abdella, the immersive exhibitions with the physically displayed canvases by Vivian Suter. These are just some of the names that are on top of my mind right now, but there are many others.
Think of the biggest professional risk you’ve taken. What helped you take that risk?
In 2019 I was invited by a gallery in Santa Monica (California) to do an exhibition, I didn’t know the gallery physically as I am based in Barcelona, neither the gallery manager but we had a Skype meeting and as a result, I had a good vibe of altogether so I decided to trust my intuition and take the risk to fly all the way to LA with all my paintings to be able to show for the first time my work in that part of the world.
This wouldn’t have been physically possible without the help of my sister Lara, who not only carried along with me in the airport around 160 kg of luggage (mainly rolled paintings) but also helped me set the exhibition, and kept me nurtured all the long hours spent at the gallery doing the install. The exhibition resulted in a success, and I was very happy to have trusted my guts in this one!
Tell us about your artist studio, what kind of place is it? Could you describe your usual work-day?
My art studio is on the top floor of my house, and it is composed of three areas. There is one for painting, another for sewing the canvases and storage, and another one for computer work. I live in the hills of Collserola, which is a natural park next to Barcelona. So, I am always surrounded by mountains, rivers, fog, wild pigs, and the green nuances created by the trees.
I love being isolated from the fuzz and buzz of the city, which allows me to create without distractions. I usually start working right after breakfast and all the way till lunchtime. My mornings are for the more detailed or challenging work while leaving the afternoons for work that requests less focus. Normally after lunch, I will take a walk with my dogs in the forest, and keep on working after that till around 8-9 pm depending on the day. I usually work long hours when I am in the middle of a painting until it is finished, not really taking into account if it is a weekday or a weekend.
Are you more of a studio artist or naturally collaborative by nature? How do you feel about commissions?
I am a hermit studio artist with a bipolar side. This sometimes tries to get me out there and work with others, deriving in strangely fun situations. Have to admit that I had in the past a very extroverted side. Although, currently I am more an introvert that enjoys the solitude of the studio. I had work in commissions, and I enjoy them when they allow me some sort of creative freedom.
What was your first sale? Do you handle the commercials yourself or is it outsourced to a gallery/agent?
My first sale was in 2014 via Saatchi Art. One of my first large scale paintings was flown all the way to NY, and I couldn’t have been happier! Since then I kept selling online via different platforms (Singulart, Chairish, Flecha NB7, and of course Saatchi Art). These platforms handle the shipping of the paintings and they are covered with insurance. Since I usually work on large scale format it wouldn’t be possible for me to ship my paintings in another way than rolled in a tube (which I only do for really big ones). I had participated in art fairs, and I have a couple of galleries that manage some of my works in LA and Madrid. The galleries take care of the whole process on my behalf since the paintings are physically in the galleries
How does your audience interact and react to the work you put out into the world?
Usually, the first reactions are about the technique and the subject matter. Viewers tend to want to know more about the concepts or meanings behind the paintings and about the steps I follow to develop a painting. People that have seen my paintings digitally before seeing physically tend to tell me that the paintings gain much more in person. And I agree, because the small screen in our phones is not able to do justice to the full size and detail of a large scale painting. Hence as much as I like the digital kingdom I cannot wait to go to see my favorite artist exhibitions offline and get really close to their paintings.
What were you working on when the lockdown was announced?
The lockdown was announced in Spain mid-March 2020. I was preparing a solo show to bring my “about:blank” series to Madrid in June 2020 with Gärna Gallery. Also, I was getting ready to attend The Other Art Fair in LA in April 2020 and to Flecha NB7 Art Fair in Barcelona in May 2020 . These events have been canceled. Until the situation with the virus normalizes on a European scale all my offline projects are on hold.
How has this affected your practice and plans?
In the beginning, I was really worried about how could I commercially stand this situation. Due to the fact that the majority of my sales was done offline. But as the confinement and these post-confinement months had passed I noticed that my online sales had increased to be almost the same number as my offline ones, helping me to be able to continue creating and paying rent. This has helped me not only to survive but also to keep me motivated to continue working with the same engagement that you have prior to an exhibition.
Before you go – you might like to browse our Artist Interviews. Interviews of artists and outliers on how to be an artist. Contemporary artists on the source of their creative inspiration.