Nathaniel Price

Nathaniel Price’s work is not only a physical feat but a feat of immortality as well. The As Built series is a set of life size human shaped figure drawings made of meticulously written words in varying shades of graphite. As the series progresses, the body undergoes what Price regards as a ‘stress’ with a concentration of resources to the vital areas of the body such as the head and heart. When one comes face to face with Price’s work, there is both a physical presence of a body as well as a handwritten trail of medical decay. Even though the graphite aims to point out problem areas in the human body, the series ends with a halo effect of words surrounding an empty figure once again leaving the viewer to ponder the darker themes of human mortality.

Nathaniel Price was born in New York City in 1972. The landscape painter Stanley Lewis was a family friend and an influential figure, cultivating Price’s early interest in drawing and looking with intention. Price graduated from both Wesleyan University (B.A) and the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland (M.D). He has had full scholarship residencies at the Chautauqua Institute, the Vermont Studio Center and the de Young museum in San Francisco. In 2009, he moved his studio from San Francisco to Somerville. His works are in the Priztker family collection, the NYU collection, and the di Rosa Center for Contemporary Art in California. He has been written about in the San Francisco Guardian, The San Francisco Examiner, ARTWEEK, SFWeekly, The San Francisco Chronicle and Art New England. Nathaniel also works as a primary care physician. He teaches at MIT and Harvard medical school where he is an assistant professor. He lives and works in Cambridge, MA.