On the Language of Movement and Breath

Nathan Budoff’s artwork has been characterized as utopian, designing interrelations that could only be imagined, emphasizing the possibility of unconsidered correspondence. He uses his work to examine similarity and connectedness in the living world, with the parallelism of social and cultural networks of different beings that extend over one another in the same territories. A connectedness that can go almost unperceived. These pieces explore the general through the specific, through Budoff’s lived experience and research. He is intrigued by patterns of cognition, and distinct perceptual understandings of our world. All that said, design and compositional concerns remain central to his visual expression and process. At once conserving open space in the work, he directs the choreography of a spectator’s encounter with each piece, while always considering the intensity and purpose of different media in the development of each distinct element in the work. This serves as visual phenomena, and also as a symbolic language. In this afternoon seminar, Budoff will discuss several specific pieces, offering concrete instances of these concerns and ideas.

Born and raised in Massachusetts, Budoff has developed his career in the vital and passionate art community of San Juan, Puerto Rico. He studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and was shortly thereafter awarded Fulbright Fellowship. In 2020, he completed a large mural project, Entre Mar y Tierra, on the four sides of a pyramid in the city of Cataño, across the bay from Old San Juan. He created a 42-foot diameter mosaic, Con las Cotorras, on the ceiling of the Martínez Nadal Station of the San Juan metro as part of the Puerto Rico Public Art Program. Artist residencies include the Ucross Foundation, the Vermont Studio Center, the American Academy in Rome and the Faculty Resource Network at New York University. 

This talk takes place while 10 of Budoff’s original works are displayed at SFI’s Cowan Campus. Five pieces are generously furnished by the artist from his own studio, while the other five come courtesy of the Albuquerque Museum, straight off the walls from their 8-month long exhibition “Vivarium, Exploring Intersections of Art, Storytelling, and the Resilience of the Living World” which also featured works by Patrick McGrath Muñiz, Steven J. Yazzie (Diné/Laguna), Eliza Naranjo Morse (Kha’p’o Owingeh), Stanley Natchez (Shoshone-Tataviam), Julie Buffalohead (Ponca Tribe Indians of Oklahoma), and Eloy Torrez, a selection of works from the Tia Collection including paintings by Nanibah Chacon (Diné/Chicana), Julio Larraz, and more.