Ron Nagle: Handsome Drifter

Selected works

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  • Text: Ron Nagle has made stunning, entirely unique small sculptures since the 1960s, producing a body of work that is as original as it is mischievous. He mixes allusions to modernism, middlebrow culture, and the specific pop sensibility of Northern California in exquisitely formed works that are often no bigger than a few inches. This exhibition marks his first survey in the Bay Area in over twenty-five years. A student of legendary ceramicist and UC Berkeley professor Peter Voulkos, Nagle participated in an important dialogue with ceramic artists like Ken Price and Jim Melchert from the 1960s onward. He began his career making funky, rough cups and vessels out of earthenware, and by the early 1960s was using low-fire, slip casting techniques, making smoother surfaces and bringing into play the luminous colors that would become his calling card. Later, he also began gluing elements together, muddying the purity of ceramics and allowing more flexibility of form. In his recent works, Nagle continues to diverge from traditional ceramic processes, introducing synthetic materials such as polyurethane and resin. Nagle integrates varied references—from Japanese tea ceremony to Krazy Kat and art-historical movements such as Abstract Expressionism, Surrealism, and Pop art—in his series of sculptures. He has said, “I’m just as moved by seeing a 1934 DeSoto Airflow or by listening to ‘Waterloo Sunset’ by the Kinks as I am
  • by most things in a museum.” Many of the artist’s key artistic influences have come from painting, including such diverse figures as Philip Guston, Giorgio Morandi, and Josef Albers. Each sculptural object starts as a casual drawing or a distractedly made doodle, which Nagle then translates into a three-dimensional object that retains the imagistic quality of the original drawing. Made with an overarching sense of playfulness and linguistic humor, a bodily and architectural sensibility, and a keen attention to color, these finely tuned, pitch-perfect sculptures condense sensory wonder into perfect packages of experience and feeling. Their miniature scale makes Nagle’s odd, elegant, sensual, and sometimes abject objects endlessly surprising models for imagination. <br> Ron Nagle: Handsome Drifter is organized by Apsara DiQuinzio, senior curator of modern and contemporary art and Phyllis C. Wattis MATRIX Curator, with Lucia Olubunmi Momoh, curatorial assistant. The exhibition is made possible with lead support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, Matthew Marks Gallery, and Nion McEvoy and Leslie Berriman. Major support is provided by Joachim and Nancy Hellman Bechtle, Chara Schreyer and Gordon Freund, Robin Wright and Ian Reeves, and Joan Roebuck. Additional support is provided by Carla Emil and Rich Silverstein, Alexandra Bowes and Stephen Williamson, Jeffrey Spahn Gallery, the LLWW Foundation, and Dorothy Saxe. Generous in-kind support is provided by Yves Béhar and fuseproject, San Francisco.

  • Left: Dundino, 1998; From the Hairdo Wares series; Ceramic, glaze, underglaze, china paint, and epoxy resin
    Collection of Jay and Christina Gospodnetich

    Right: Barbra of Hungary, 2001; From the Smoove Wares series; Ceramic, glaze, underglaze, china paint, and epoxy resin
    Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation for Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI

  • Left: Fortgang, 2002; From the Thin Fins series; Ceramic, glaze, china paint, and epoxy resin
    Portland Art Museum

    Right: The Bad Clown, 2003; From the Snuff Bottles series; Porcelain, glaze, china paint, and epoxy resin
    Dennis Gallagher and Trish Bransten Familiy Collection

  • Left: Duck Salad, 2005; From the Small Frys series; Porcelain, glaze, china paint, and epoxy resin
    Collection of Wendy Barrie and David Brotman

    Right: The Ice Queen, 2005; From the Mid Frys series; Ceramic, glaze, underglaze, china paint, and epoxy resin
    Courtest of Matthew Marks Gallery

  • Left:"All the Foxes Come at Last to Fur Store", 2007; From the Chanagrams series; Colored porcelain, ceramic, glaze, china paint, and epoxy resin
    Collection of the artist

    Right: Beautiful Noodler, 2008; From the Thin Fins series; Ceramic, glaze, underglaze, china paint, and epoxy resin
    Maxine and Stuart Frankel Private Collection

  • Left: Drab Leg Buffet, 2008; From the Vertical Variants series; Ceramic, glaze, underglaze, china paint, and epoxy resin
    Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, gift of Rena Bransten 2010.25.2

    Right: Murphy's Claw, 2008; From the Thin Fins series; Ceramic, glaze, china paint, gold lustre, and epoxy resin
    Collection of David Altmejd

  • Left: Princess Propensities, 2008; From the Stillscapes series; Ceramic, underglaze, glaze, china paint, and epoxy resin
    Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, gift of Rena Bransten 2010.25.5

    Right: Beirut Canal, 2009; From the Tag series; Ceramic, glaze, underglaze
    Courtesy of the artist and Matthew Marks Gallery

  • Left: Blueweeorama, From the Weeoramas series; Ceramic, epoxy, underglaze, and epoxy resin
    Collection of the artist

    Right: Golden Shag, From the Neo Hairdo Wares series; Ceramic, catalyzed polyurethane, and epoxy resin
    Collection of Robin Wright and Ian Reeves

  • Left: Vanity Scramble, 2011; From the Stillscapes series; Ceramic, catalyzed polyurethane, and epoxy resin
    San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, gift of Rena Bransten

    Right: General Malaise, 2011; From the Neo Hairdo Wares series; Ceramic, gold lustre, catalyzed polyurethane, and epoxy resin
    Collection of Don Tuttle

  • Left: PM Dom, 2013; From the Banas series; Ceramic, glaze, catalyzed polyurethane, epoxy resin, and aluminum
    Collection of Rafael de Cardenas

    Right: Karma Gouda, 2014; From the Chewing Gum Monuments series; Ceramic, porcelain, catalyzed polyurethane, and epoxy resin
    Maxine and Stuart Frankel Foundation for Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI

  • Left: Boston Scrambler, 2015; From the Stillscapes series; Ceramic, glaze, catalyzed polyurethane, and epoxy resin
    Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston, General Acquisition

    Right: Handsome Drifter, 2012; From the Stillscapes series; Ceramic, glaze, catalyzed polyurethane, and epoxy resin
    Collection of Joachim and Nancy Hellman Bechtle

  • Left: Urintetrouble, 2015; From the Benders series; Ceramic, glaze, catalyzed polyurethane, and epoxy resin
    Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, museum purchase

    Right: Corporal Shunt, 2016; From the Stillscapes series; Ceramic, catalyzed polyurethane, epoxy resin, and acrylic
    Collection of James Rondeau and Igor DaCosta

  • Left: Message to Raphael, 2016; From the Chewing Gum Monuments series; Ceramic, glaze, porcelain, catalyzed polyurethane, epoxy resin, gold lustre, and acrylic
    Collection of Charlie Pohlad

    Right: Sudoku Seppuku, 2019; From the Penzai series; Ceramic, glaze, catalyzed polyurethane, and epoxy resin
    Collection of the artist

Videos

Ron Nagle and Don Ed Hardy in Conversation

Nagle is joined in conversation by his longtime friend the internationally celebrated tattoo artist Don Ed Hardy. The two artists will discuss mutual tastes and interests including the visual culture of Japan, the concept of wabi-sabi and the value of the imperfect, and the marginalization of certain art forms in mainstream culture.

Gallery Talk: Steuart Pittman on Ron Nagle

Oakland-based artist Steuart Pittman addresses recurring themes of humor, music, craftsmanship, and beauty in Ron Nagle’s work, as well as Nagle’s role as a teacher.

Gallery Talk: Nathan Lynch on Ron Nagle

Nathan Lynch, associate professor and chair of the ceramics and glass programs at California College of the Arts, gives a talk focusing on Ron Nagle's work ethic, attention to detail, and unflinching pursuit of his best sculpture, as well as his humor and sense of style.