Nathlie Provosty

(the third ear) 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.