Alfred Nadel's portraits literally distort or deconstruct the bodies of his subjects. Concerned with the fragmentation of modern life: its frenetic complexity, and the ease with which we are able to alter and redefine our physical selves through surgery, piercings, tattoos, branding, and more - Nadel fractures, layers, textures, and manipulates his subjects, replicating or enacting the ways in which our bodies serve as a surface on which we act. He combines collage, drawing, and experimental media such as copy-machine toner and Polaroid emulsions, to create portraits that reflect the disjunctures he perceives as existing both in the space between us, and just beneath the corporeal surface of each of us. His desire to cut and paste, join and sever, distort and perfect his subjects creates visceral mediations on the fragility of flesh and form, the ease with which the physical self is altered, and how that affects our understanding of the person beneath the skin.
- Rachel Seligman