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Nathan D. Manna

@nathandmanna

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“the biggest threat to America” - some alt-right newspaper
Currently queering relics and theologies.
Find me at @ucirvine

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Escape. Zoom in. Let your mind wander this garden I have created. Each flower, piece of artwork, and man carefully chosen and curated to create a joyful utopia free from any semblance of homophobia or harm. Here the fairies can play freely without worry of the outside world. The pansies can sit by the stream and regale each other with tales of their trips to far off lands. The fruits laze about on couches softly strumming a guitar or lute.

Here, yesterday, today, and tomorrow converge and unify in everlasting glorious day.

Here, we are not restricted to the shadows.

This is paradise.

At long last: the entire wall! Here is the entirety of the Acrobatics of the Divine from start to finish. If you weren’t able to catch it in-person at the Jean McDonough Arts Center you’ll be able to see it here and very soon on my website.

The Acrobatics of the Divine. Nathan D. Manna. 2023. 1044 inches by 120 inches. Photomontage printed on coated canvas

This exhibition is supported in part by grants from the Worcester Arts Council (@worcesterartscouncil), which was made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (@neaarts) and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), from the City of Worcester, and the Jean McDonough Arts Center (@imacworcester) in partnership with the Barr Foundation.

#gay #contemporaryart #collage #Igbtq#collageartist #johnoreilly
#flowers #flower #art #gayartistofinstagram #gayartistofinstagram #gayartist #gayart #gaycollage #worcester #massachusetts #collageartist #chicago #makearteverywhere taken in JMAC by @nathandmanna

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3 years ago

Escape. Zoom in. Let your mind wander this garden I have created. Each flower, piece of artwork, and man carefully chosen and curated to create a joyful utopia free from any semblance of homophobia or harm. Here the fairies can play freely without worry of the outside world. The pansies can sit by the stream and regale each other with tales of their trips to far off lands. The fruits laze about on couches softly strumming a guitar or lute.

Here, yesterday, today, and tomorrow converge and unify in everlasting glorious day.

Here, we are not restricted to the shadows.

This is paradise.

At long last: the entire wall! Here is the entirety of the Acrobatics of the Divine from start to finish. If you weren’t able to catch it in-person at the Jean McDonough Arts Center you’ll be able to see it here and very soon on my website.

The Acrobatics of the Divine. Nathan D. Manna. 2023. 1044 inches by 120 inches. Photomontage printed on coated canvas

This exhibition is supported in part by grants from the Worcester Arts Council (@worcesterartscouncil), which was made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (@neaarts) and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), from the City of Worcester, and the Jean McDonough Arts Center (@imacworcester) in partnership with the Barr Foundation.

#gay #contemporaryart #collage #Igbtq#collageartist #johnoreilly
#flowers #flower #art #gayartistofinstagram #gayartistofinstagram #gayartist #gayart #gaycollage #worcester #massachusetts #collageartist #chicago #makearteverywhere taken in JMAC by @nathandmanna

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3 years ago

Escape. Zoom in. Let your mind wander this garden I have created. Each flower, piece of artwork, and man carefully chosen and curated to create a joyful utopia free from any semblance of homophobia or harm. Here the fairies can play freely without worry of the outside world. The pansies can sit by the stream and regale each other with tales of their trips to far off lands. The fruits laze about on couches softly strumming a guitar or lute.

Here, yesterday, today, and tomorrow converge and unify in everlasting glorious day.

Here, we are not restricted to the shadows.

This is paradise.

At long last: the entire wall! Here is the entirety of the Acrobatics of the Divine from start to finish. If you weren’t able to catch it in-person at the Jean McDonough Arts Center you’ll be able to see it here and very soon on my website.

The Acrobatics of the Divine. Nathan D. Manna. 2023. 1044 inches by 120 inches. Photomontage printed on coated canvas

This exhibition is supported in part by grants from the Worcester Arts Council (@worcesterartscouncil), which was made possible with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (@neaarts) and the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), from the City of Worcester, and the Jean McDonough Arts Center (@imacworcester) in partnership with the Barr Foundation.

#gay #contemporaryart #collage #Igbtq#collageartist #johnoreilly
#flowers #flower #art #gayartistofinstagram #gayartistofinstagram #gayartist #gayart #gaycollage #worcester #massachusetts #collageartist #chicago #makearteverywhere taken in JMAC by @nathandmanna

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3 years ago

I am pleased to announce that I have been awarded the Distinguished Master’s Thesis Award here at Penn State.

My thesis, “Desiring the Flesh: Relics of Desire and Mourning in Contemporary Queer Art,” brings medieval relic traditions into contact with queer theory to ask what the relic still does in contemporary queer art. Humanity has always been committed to preserving the bodily trace. Western culture is built on that impulse, so it is hardly surprising that queer artists inherit it and make it their own. What is surprising is how queer artists redeploy a seemingly hostile culture to fit their agenda. The sacred and the profane no longer stand apart; they circle and dance with one another until neither remains intact. The spirit becomes flesh and the flesh becomes spirit.

I am also excited to share that I will continue this work at the University of California, Irvine, where I begin my PhD in Visual Studies in the Fall. Irvine has so much to offer this project and I am eager to expand this project there. My time in the cow fields was a necessary chapter, but I am ready to return to a world of more... decadent shimmer and culture.

Onwards! taken in Penn State by @nathandmanna

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6 months ago

Paint it on thick, dearest; powder, rouge, sin—it’s all the same. The lip curls, the glass tips, the room spins. Welcome to monstrous Wonderland. My Wonderland. A land of velvet decay. Sweet ruin drips down the walls; beauty and wit cut straight to the heart. Eat me. Drink me. Swallow me whole. This is my kingdom, my court, my fever dream—and you, you poor underdressed thing, are already my prisoner. Now bow, scream, kiss my feet… before I take your head and wear it like a crown.

An image in my new Wonderland series. Stay tuned for more!

#QueerArt #ContemporaryQueerArt #LGBTQArt #QueerArtist #QueerCreatives #QueerPortraiture #QueerPhotography #ContemporaryArt #PerformanceArt #StagedPhotography #PhotoArt #ArtPhotography #FineArtPhotography #QueerHistory #ArtAsResistance #VisualCulture by @nathandmanna

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a year ago

Imagine I said something profound here. New series. New ideas. New ways of making. Dionysian fantasies of Wonderland. Much more to be said when the series progresses further. Not sure if this is the final version but it’s becoming into something.

“The Queen of Hearts / She had some tarts / All on a summer’s day. / The Knave of Hearts / He stole those tarts / And ate them clean away”

#gayart #queerart #photography #gayphotography #queerphotography by @nathandmanna

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a year ago

Through the looking glass! A few weeks ago Meta revised their policies surrounding hate speech and LGBTQIA+ people. It is now totally within their community guidelines to say that queer people have mental illnesses. Since then, they seemed to have also revised their moderation guidelines as almost every single work on my account has been flagged. They haven’t deleted them but they strongly encourage me to delete the works and self-censor. Until I comply they won’t show my account to non-followers. So welcome, if you’re seeing this.

I fear that I probably won’t be staying on Instagram for much longer in light of these recent policy changes. I’m not sure where I will go but I’ll let you know when I do. Until then, and as I don’t need to worry about being shadowbanned or the like, I’m flooding your feed with work for (perhaps) one last time.

Tombstone:

“Thank you for wakin’ up this mornin’/ I feel best with you is what I’m learnin’/ You could turn me on just by you breathin’/ Don’t be like the rest, don’t you be leavin’/ Do you think I could take off your shirt then/ Kiss you on the neck I am certain/ Smell like you after we been/ Fuckin’ up my house ‘cause we freaks and/ Just wanna let you know that you’re perfect/ We fucked up so that’s why we workin’/ … I can see myself in ya baby/ Can we just fuck now like crazy” (“This one is for the boys/ With their greased up and heavy metal toys/ So beefed up, you can’t get through the door … Six pack and tight G-string/ No, I’m not gay, bro/ But I’ve been on that lay low” [“Marilyn, Judy, Sylvia/ Tell ‘em how you feel, girls/ … We’ll haunt like Liberace/ Find your freedom in the music/ Find your Jesus, find your Kubrick/ You will never fall apart Diana, you’re still in our hearts/ Never let you fall apart/ Together, we’ll dance in the dark”]). 2024. 72x108 inkjet print of staged diorama featuring found objects and cut ups. by @nathandmanna

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2 years ago

Dionysus beckons you to join him at the ruins of a temple deep in the forest. There under a twilight sky the mysteries of death and rebirth will be revealed to those who drink the bitter wine. Liberation is offered only through imbibing the generous libations he bestows. Join him and find yourself freed from constraint.

Another new piece from this weekend. 🥳

#contemporaryart #photography #queerphotography #gayphotography #collage #gay #gayart #sculpture #foundobject #assemblage #gaybear #queerart #camp #chicago #gaymen #lgbtq #gayartist #lgbtart by @nathandmanna

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2 years ago

Tried out a new lighting technique and nearly screamed when it worked out. The lusciousness of the color! As of yet, untitled, but in my head I call this one “Eating Cake at Marie’s Hamlet.” This new series is taking inspiration from fairies, bacchantes, and midnight parties in forests. A mythic revelry that leaves civilization behind.

#contemporaryart #photography #queerphotography #gayphotography #collage #gay #gayart #sculpture #foundobject #assemblage #gaybear #queerart #camp #chicago #gaymen #lgbtq #gayartist #lgbtart by @nathandmanna

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2 years ago

I am excited to share that next semester I’ll be giving a presentation at the Clark Art Institute as part of their of symposium Queer Palimpsests: Rewriting Medieval Art History.

My presentation will be on my recent research and creative work exploring the role of relics and reliquaries in queer contexts. It is tentatively titled “Desires of the Flesh: Queering the Relic Through an Art as Research Methodology” and my abstract is in the comments. by @nathandmanna

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2 years ago

I bought these Adidas cleats for $10 at @marshalls. Aren’t they gorgeously hideous? by @nathandmanna

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2 years ago

Another thesis pic! by @nathandmanna

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2 years ago