Art Basel Miami: Nate Lowman

A bona fide tribe leader in New York’s downtown art scene, 32-year-old Nate Lowman shares influences with contemporaries Dan Colen, Leo Fitzpatrick, and the late Dash Snow: a penchant for found art, decay in all forms, and recycled artifacts once forgotten. Having made his name riddling white cubes with bullet holes, Lowman has recently changed tack. His new work comprises a series of paintings saturated in smiley faces that recall O.J. Simpsons's chilling suicide note, in which his signature “O” replicated the cheery iconography. The artist is in Miami to present his creations at Massimo De Carlo gallery’s space at Art Basel but, of course, one doesn’t reach chieftain status without being a man of many talents—Lowman sidelines as a deejay, and was called upon to preside over an exclusive after-party during this year’s fair. He is also a reluctant YouTube celebrity (thanks to the public’s avid documentation of his high-profile breakup with Mary Kate Olsen). But in the end, his true vocation is his art: directors Jauretsi and Crystal Moselle visited Lowman in his Miami hotel room, where he ruminated on the beauty of trash, the selfish side of pain, and the “opposite” of therapy.

To see Jauretsi and Crystal Moselle's exclusive Art Basel Miami film series for NOWNESS in its entirety, click here.