Onel David Naar

enamel on drywall and custom wood panel

36 × 48 inches

2025

With the support of the NYFA “Keep NYS Creating Project” grant I’ve incorporated drywall, pigmented plaster and enamel paint into my practice. 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 even bodily fluids from the revelry of the night before. However, I work through the possible narrative of addiction, 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.

enamel on drywall and custom wood panel

36 × 48 inches

2025

With the support of the NYFA “Keep NYS Creating Project” grant I’ve incorporated drywall, pigmented plaster and enamel paint into my practice. 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 even bodily fluids from the revelry of the night before. However, I work through the possible narrative of addiction, 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.

enamel on drywall and custom wood panel

36 × 48 inches

2025

With the support of the NYFA “Keep NYS Creating Project” grant I’ve incorporated drywall, pigmented plaster and enamel paint into my practice. 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 even bodily fluids from the revelry of the night before. However, I work through the possible narrative of addiction, 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.

enamel on drywall and custom wood panel

36 × 48 inches

2024

With the support of the NYFA “Keep NYS Creating Project” grant I’ve incorporated drywall, pigmented plaster and enamel paint into my practice. 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 even bodily fluids from the revelry of the night before. However, I work through the possible narrative of addiction, 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.

enamel on drywall and custom wood panel

36 × 48 inches

2024

With the support of the NYFA “Keep NYS Creating Project” grant I’ve incorporated drywall, pigmented plaster and enamel paint into my practice. 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 even bodily fluids from the revelry of the night before. However, I work through the possible narrative of addiction, 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.

enamel on drywall and custom wood panel

36 × 48 inches

2024

With the support of the NYFA “Keep NYS Creating Project” grant I’ve incorporated drywall, pigmented plaster and enamel paint into my practice. 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 even bodily fluids from the revelry of the night before. However, I work through the possible narrative of addiction, 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.

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.

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.

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.