ART-PRESENTATION: Nick Moss-Steel Shapes

Nick Moss works primarily with various composites of raw steel, which he hand-welds into a canvas. Working entirely by hand, he uses industrial tools including a blowtorch, a MIG welder, and sanding implements, with unique patinas applied directly to the steel to create various abstract motifs. He also employs plasma cutting, oxyacetylene torching, water-jet cutting, laser cutting, and two-part clear coating in his practice.

By Efi Michalarou
Photo: Leila Heller Gallery Archive

Nick Moss’s new body of work that is on presentation in his solo exhibition “Steel Shapes” marks a significant transition from figuration to abstraction while still employing the artist’s signature cut-steel canvases and industrial tools to explore materiality and color. At the center of this exhibition is his series “Steel Shapes” in which Moss uses a blowtorch and unique patinas to test the limits of color on various shaped steel canvases welded together, recalling modernist tropes such as color-field painting, hard-edge abstraction, and assemblage. In these works, traditional linen and wood have been replaced with steel, the brush with a torch, and paint with patina. Moss further explains how the shapes are inspired by aerial views and “how the fields are all divided by tree lines or roads and the similarities in shapes from square to rectangles and oddball shapes to literally walking on the street or shadows cast”. Despite the general abstraction in the appearances of the shapes, there’s a sense of familiarity. “Recognizing daily observations is how Steel Shapes formed”, he explains. In addition to the “Steel Shapes” series, the artist debuts three “Flame Paintings”,  wall-mounted steel works, in which he applied the blowtorch to explore the tactility and textures of the material. He relied solely on the raw essence of the steel and the soot particles caused by burning acetylene, resulting in a subtle contrast of shape and shadow that evokes painterly abstraction in monochromatic hues. Moss inserts the powerful element of fire and the rawness of steel into a dialogue of subtlety and restraint within the framework of traditional minimalism. “Flame Paintings happened as somewhat of a mistake,” he says ”There’s no control using a flame.” Within all elements of his work, Moss deploys steel as a deliberate substitution for the traditional canvas while at the same time rejecting its historical use to create large-scale monolithic structures. Rather, as critic Lilly Wei notes, Moss has searched for ways to present his ‘steel paintings,’ ultimately devising an elegant structural solution to the past.

Info: Leila Heller Gallery, 17 East 76th Street (off Madison Avenue), New York, Duration: 10/1-21/2/20, Days & Hours: By Appointment, www.leilahellergallery.com