ATRIUM ARTIST IN RESIDENCE: NADD HARVIN¬

Engage with working artists creating on-site inspired by Kara Walker: Cut to the Quick and LaToya M. Hobbs: Flourish. Artists will have mobile studios set up in the Virginia MOCA Atrium. The residency aims to support and amplify the work of regional artists while creating another entry point for Museum visitors to engage with contemporary art and ideas in connection with the main gallery exhibitions.

This month's Artist in Residence is Nadd Harvin.

Schedule:

Saturdays, April 1, May 27, June 3, & June 10
Sunday, June 11

Artist Statement

I am interested in the habitual origins of art-making as its own language- one that feels both innate and mystical. The objective of my work continues to become a vehicle or vessel for sharing and story-telling. As a way to be mindful of what I am offering, I intentionally select, combine, and interpret materials to empower and fortify the meaning and function of my work. I challenge myself to create a visual language that acknowledges the sensitivity of ephemeral thoughts and feelings but actualizes them in form through sculpting and materializing.

In an attempt to offer a reprieve or reframing of the status quo, my art-making has become a personal communication tool to respond to a world that too often rejects hypersensitivity and rewards the act of disassociation. I seek to bring a sense of connection and empowerment through the creation of artwork; to create an opportunity to hold space for myself and others. Outcomes of the work produce journal-like self-explorations that challenge my own values of what is conceptually worthy of being shared, cherished, or communicated. I celebrate the opportunities for understanding, communion, vulnerability, and agency that art allows each of us, and pursue these experiences within my work.

Bio

Nadd Harvin is a self-taught painter, illustrator, and teaching artist based primarily in Richmond and Hampton Roads, VA. As a teacher and prolific sketchbook artist, Nadd’s work is heavily process-based and influenced by the act of creating and mark-making. Their work is also deeply interested in utilizing realism as a vehicle for abstract expression and creating compositions that open up a world of endless storytelling possibilities. These elements also bleed through into their large-scale mural work, creating a style that seeks to balance elements of chaos, centered around a personal narrative of creation and holding time and space. Self actualization, community and world building, time, space, ego, and identity are a few of the themes central to their work.

Nadd Harvin