Nathlie Provosty (b. Cincinnati OH 1981 lives and works in Brooklyn NY) has recently gained
critical acclaim for subtle highly sensual abstract oil paintings that oscillate in
appearance between word forms possible body fragments and moving images. The artist's
frequent use of dark colors stems from an interest in the peripheral territories of visual
perception. Taking this source one step further she describes the paintings as emitting
inaudible sound-sound that we can feel though not hear. Visible color occupies just a small
region of the entire electromagnetic spectrum within which simultaneous but invisible
vibrations are always present. Similarly only close attention to the paintings and the
movement of light and space within and around them can render their noiseless sound palpable.
The New York Times critic Roberta Smith has written that the artist effectively complicates the
perceptual mysteries of Ad Reinhardt's Black Paintings with her own sense of scale atmosphere
and material punch. This is no mean feat. Provosty's first monograph includes a personal essay
by the writer Jarrett Earnest and a substantial showcase of works dating from 2012-2015.
