Nathalie Tierce was born in New York City and studied illustration at the High
School of Art and Design and went on to receive a BFA in Painting from Pratt
Institute. After graduating she worked extensively as a scenic artist in England
painting backings for film and The BBC she settled in Los Angeles.

This year, she had her first solo show “Idiot Machine” at Space 2531 in Los Angeles, and has exhibited in group shows with L.A. Artcore, Ace 121 Gallery, Blue Line Gallery, BG
Gallery, Gallery at Alliance Francaise in Los Angeles, amongst others. She now divides her time between painting in her studio and colour consulting and lives with
her husband Chris, a sculptor and son Joshua, aged 10.

These works by Nathalie Tierce are also featured on the cover and inside Issue Two of Porridge, available for purchase here.

 

 

 

 

I have always been fascinated by the power of buildings. Personally at odds with a sense of spatial direction, my sensitivity to the immediate impact of any given space is extreme. The way a building embraces or threatens someone is remarkable to me. At the same time, my ambivalence to an ordered universe and gravity is prevalent in my depiction of structure. Architectural elements threaten, fall and float. Shadows become more alive than the entities that cast them.

Often my point of departure for a work is a collage. Ripping apart images from Architectural Digest, I piece together a visual roadmap of a particular memory or experience I’ve had. From there, I refine the composition in painting, discarding and editing the parts that don’t resonate with me.

Much like the intense relationship Lygia Clark of the Neo-Concrete movement had with the report or lack of, between our natural selves and manufactured dwellings, a sense of overwhelming wonder at a life lived within walls permeates my work.

I would like my paintings to touch on the viewer’s own experience and memories of living with the stairs, rooms, hallways that make up the background of our lives. Giving thought to how the places we live in and around become a part of us, our histories and psyches.