Brockport artist Nate Hodge has been commissioned to create a mural for MAG’s first floor galleries. Hodge was recently awarded the University of Rochester’s Lillian Fairchild Award for his work with WALL\THERAPY, a city-wide public art project. The mural at MAG is “an immersive work covering two walls and the ceiling,” says Hodge, which visitors can walk into and through.
“Using diluted acrylic house paint with sprayers, rollers, and brushes, [Hodge] doesn’t approach a project with strict plans, but works instinctively to create environments in immersive layers, responding to a space in a way that mirrors organic growth,” art critic Rebecca Rafferty says. Adds the artist, “the challenge is to create something that stops people in their tracks, to get them to stop moving and look at the art.”
About the Artist
Nate Hodge first began drawing to illustrate stories he made up as a child. As he grew older, the Brockport-based artist gravitated towards paint, at first working out mythical stories and imagined landscapes but recently focusing on an exploration of the painting medium itself, pushing it to expand off of the canvas and inhabit/respond to environments.
Hodge received his BFA from SUNY Brockport and his MFA from the University of Buffalo. He began working with WALL\THERAPY in 2015 after participating in several group shows at the 1975 Gallery in Rochester, which specialized in showcasing the work of up-and-coming local artists.
In February 2016, Hodge was awarded the University of Rochester’s Lillian Fairchild Award for his work with WALL\THERAPY. He’s in good company—past award recipients have included choreographer Garth Fagan, sculptor Albert Paley, and Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Anthony Hecht.
Made possible by Ian Wilson, WALL\THERAPY and IDEATION: Funding the Future Memorial Art Gallery.