Onel David Naar

enamel on drywall and custom wood panel

48 x 84 inches

2023

Construction materials used by my father throughout his career as a maintenance worker in tenement buildings, mostly in the Bronx, have been present in my practice for the past three years. With the support of the NYFA “Keep NYS Creating Project” grant I’ve incorporated drywall, pigmented plaster and enamel paint into my practice. My lack of experience using materials meant for building and repairing walls helped me to revisit my family’s humble beginnings as unskilled workers living in the South Bronx of the 1970s.

enamel paint and pigmented plaster on drywall and custom wood panel

48 x 72 inches

2023

Construction materials used by my father throughout his career as a maintenance worker in tenement buildings, mostly in the Bronx, have been present in my practice for the past three years. With the support of the NYFA “Keep NYS Creating Project” grant I’ve incorporated drywall, pigmented plaster and enamel paint into my practice. My lack of experience using materials meant for building and repairing walls helped me to revisit my family’s humble beginnings as unskilled workers living in the South Bronx of the 1970s.

Dineen Hull Gallery, NJ

drywall, pigmented plaster, mentholated petrolatum, printed plastic bag, banana leaves, resin and wood.

50.5 x 38.5 x 4 inches

2022

“A Leaf Outta Drywall” was exhibited in Jersey City for the show “Your Home Is My Home”. Curator Michelle Vitale commissioned work that spoke to the urban immigrant experience to be exhibited by the windows of the gallery; juxtaposing the leaves and drywall against a skyline interrupted by the construction of luxury condominiums during a housing crisis.

Vicks VapoRub on plantain leaf in petroleum jelly filled acrylic frame.

12 x 16 x 1 inches

2018

Earlier versions of this piece were exhibited at Dineen Hull Gallery in 2022 and Trestle Gallery in 2018. The title of the piece is taken from a line in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet where Romeo tells Mercutio, “Your plantain leaf is excellent for that (broken shin)” (1.2.53). I apply Vicks VapoRub on the leaf to reinforce this idea of healing. The wilting leaf sits in an acrylic frame cushioned by a 1/2 inch of mentholated petrolatum, which in turn is framed by a thick border of petroleum jelly, creating contrasting values. I am interested in the placebo quality of these products and how they have been integrated into Caribbean culture. Viewers have the option of scooping up, pushing in or smudging the medicinal medium with their hands across a slippery surface of plantain leaves.

drywall, oil, pigmented plaster, posters, bags.

36 x 24 inches each

2023

“Los Tres Golpes (Bergdorf Bag Lady)” was made using inexpensive construction materials and traditional art supplies to viscerally capture the disparity between my father’s life as an immigrant manual laborer and mine, a college graduate in the arts.

enamel paint and pigmented plaster on drywall and magazine pages.

48 x 36 inches

2023

Construction materials used by my father throughout his career as a maintenance worker in tenement buildings, mostly in the Bronx, have been present in my practice for the past three years. With the support of the NYFA “Keep NYS Creating Project” grant I’ve incorporated drywall, pigmented plaster and enamel paint into my practice. My lack of experience using materials meant for building and repairing walls helped me to revisit my family’s humble beginnings as unskilled workers living in the South Bronx of the 1970s.

oil and alkyd on newspaper, canvas and wood.

36 x 24 inches each

2023

The sinuous lines that crawl throughout these works were produced by an autonomous masking process I started experimenting with during my artist residency at Art Helix Gallery in Bushwick in 2017. Liquid latex is poured, dried, painted on and sometimes removed, leaving the ghostly trace of an improvised stencil evoking the random marks found in the public spaces of inner city neighborhoods. Growing up in the Bronx I remember marks like these around the interior and exterior spaces of tenement houses . Some of these marks were made by unskilled immigrant workers haphazardly providing maintenance to a rundown building ; others made from spilled liquor, food and vomit from the revelry of the night before. However, I work through the possible narrative of exploitation, violence, vandalism, and neglect behind these “urbanmorphic” shapes by painting them with a Kem-tone inspired color palette reminiscent of the mid century Merrie Melodie cartoons I grew up watching.

oil, alkyd, canvas, frame, printed vinyl and brown paper bag.

20 x 20 inches

2023

“Autumn’s Intrigue in A Minor” is part of a series of paintings grounded in a poetic approach to communicating the Caribbean Diaspora experience through the tenets and legacy of medium-specificity. My inspiration arises from historical precedent- the U.S. Nationality Act of 1940 was drafted the same year as Clement Greenberg’s “Towards the Newer Laocoön” was published. In this work I include torn pieces of newspaper articles that relate to the legacy of the aforementioned act. The critical dialogue about what painting is/isn’t from the past 80 years has proven to be as intriguing and perplexing as the conversation around the national identity of Puerto Ricans. Thus, I seek to challenge established Nuyorican aesthetics with paintings rooted in the tension between theory and invention.

Vicks VapoRub on plantain leaves and wood

36 x 24 inches each

2017

Exhibited in 2017 at the "Invitational II" show in Art Helix Gallery, Colgão Diptych is the first installation of a series of 4 works in the Colgão series. The title of the series comes from the cibaeño pronunciation of the Spanish word for "hanging". El Cibão is a rural region in the northern part of the Dominican Republic known for its agriculture. When visiting the rural parts of both the Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico as a child I watched the women in my family use plantain leaves to make pasteles. Pasteles, like Mexican tamales, are laborious and much prized delicacies, thus their production is a cottage industry that started in Puerto Rico and spread to their confusingly non-immigrant diaspora in NYC. The use of Vicks VapoRub in this piece stems from an interest in the placebo quality of this product and how it has been integrated into Caribbean culture. Viewers have the option of scooping up, pushing in or smudging the medicinal medium with their hands across a slippery surface of plantain leaves.

2017

yucca plant (cassava) and epoxy resin on found commercial print, stretched canvas with plantain lead and wood frame

24 x 18 inches

Exhibited in 2017 at New York University Kimmel Gallery's show "Convergence", “Derbi” takes its title from the headline of the printed Portuguese newspaper seen along the lower surface. Yucca (cassava) plant is peeled, shaved, ground, and mixed with resin and plastered onto a collage of corroded Spanish and Portuguese magazine ads that speak to my fascination with printed media and urban blight.

gandules (pigeon peas) and epoxy resin on found commercial print and wood cradled panel

112 x 48 inches

2016

Completed in 2016 and shown during a residency at Art Helix Gallery in Bushwick the following year, "A Comer…Gandules (Lets Eat…Pigeon Peas) after El Gran Combo" is made up of 2 panels, 56 x 48 inches each. Gandules or pigeon peas are boiled, mashed and mixed with resin and plastered onto a collage of corroded Spanish and English magazine ads that speak to my fascination with printed media and urban blight. The natural pigments of these homemade painting mediums serve to complement the manufactured colors of the “decollaged” surfaces to which they were applied. The lyrics in the salsa track, “La Fiesta de Pilito” by the Puerto Rican orchestra El Gran Combo makes reference to the Puerto Rican soul food that was typically enjoyed during the holidays. The song was usually played on the Caribbean Spanish radio stations at Christmas when I was growing up. The ingredients for the foods listed in the song lyrics are used as painting mediums in this piece.

yucca plant (cassava) and epoxy resin on found billboard advertisements; plantain leaves and epoxy resin on wood

49¼ x 37¾ x 2½ inches

2016

Completed in 2016 and purchased by a private collector before it was exhibited, "A Comer Pasteles” (Lets Eat Pasteles) after El Gran Combo is made with shredded and ground cassava plant that was mixed with resin and plastered onto a collage of found subway ads. The natural pigments of these homemade painting mediums serve to complement the manufactured colors of the “decollaged” surfaces of the vinyl printed ads they are applied to. It's wooden frame is covered with organic plantain leaves which is typically used when making traditional Puerto Rican pasteles. The lyrics in the salsa track, “La Fiesta de Pilito” (Pilito’s Party) by the Puerto Rican orchestra El Gran Combo makes reference to the Puerto Rican soul food that was typically enjoyed during the holidays. The song was usually played on the Caribbean Spanish radio stations at Christmas when I was growing up. The ingredients for the foods listed in the song lyrics are used as painting mediums for the work.