Onel David Naar

pochoir print with enamel on paper and pressed gypsum

48 × 108 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.

Colgão (Day 1)

“Morir Soñando” at the Knockdown Center, Maspeth, NY

Vicks VapoRub on plantain leaves and wood

96 x 60 inches

2018

"Colgao (Hang Up)" was exhibited for a 2018 show at the Knockdown Center in Maspeth, curated by Alex Santana entitled "Morir Soñando" which borrows its name from the popular Dominican beverage, and literally translates into the expression “to die dreaming”. The plantain leaves used in the piece were intentionally not preserved and throughout the course of the exhibition slowly wilted away. 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. Colgão (Hang Up) is the third installation of a series of 4 works in the Colgão series.

Colgão (Day 60)

“Morir Soñando” at the Knockdown Center

60 x 96 inches each

mentholated petrolatum on plantain leaves

2018

"Colgao (Hang Up)" was exhibited for a 2018 show at the Knockdown Center in Maspeth, curated by Alex Santana entitled "Morir Soñando" which borrows its name from the popular Dominican beverage, and literally translates into the expression “to die dreaming”. The plantain leaves used in the piece were intentionally not preserved and throughout the course of the exhibition slowly wilted away. 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. Colgão (Hang Up) is the third installation of a series of 4 works in the Colgão series.

A Leaf Outta Drywall Triptych

Your Home Is My Home at Dineen Hull Gallery

drywall, pigmented plaster, mentholated petrolatum, printed plastic bag, banana leaves, resin, wood, acrylic frame and printed vinyl

dimensions variable

2022

I revisit my parents’ humble beginnings as unskilled workers living in the South Bronx of the 1970s against the backdrop of urban blight and the origins of hip hop with imagery intended to evoke the interior and exterior spaces of inner-city tenement houses. The triptych was intentionally created in tandem with the construction of a luxury apartment building in a gentrified area of Jersey City during a housing crisis.

Artist Talk for Your Home Is My Home at Dineen Hull Gallery 2022

A Leaf Outta Drywall Triptych (detail)

Your Home Is My Home at Dineen Hull Gallery

drywall, pigmented plaster, mentholated petrolatum, printed plastic bag, banana leaves, resin, wood, acrylic frame and printed vinyl

dimensions variable

2022

I revisit my parents’ humble beginnings as unskilled workers living in the South Bronx of the 1970s against the backdrop of urban blight and the origins of hip hop with imagery intended to evoke the interior and exterior spaces of inner-city tenement houses. The triptych was intentionally created in tandem with the construction of a luxury apartment building in a gentrified area of Jersey City during a housing crisis.

Roc Da Mic

Trestle Art Space Residency

mentholated petrolatum on digital c-print and acrylic frame

2018

8 x 12 x 2 inches

The thick film of mentholated petrolatum frosted on top of the surface in “Roc Da Mic ” provides the viewer with the option of scooping up, pushing in or smudging the organic medium with their hands across the duraflex print it sits on. However, the work is considered complete independent of physical interaction on the part of the audience. The option to interact with the piece is meant to appeal to the viewer’s own agency.

Petrolatum based products like Vicks VapoRub and Vaseline serve as my primary medium. I am interested in the placebo quality of these products and how they have been integrated into Caribbean culture.

"Rock da Mic" was created by pouring a 1/4 inch thick layer of mentholated petrolatum directly onto a duraflex print of a microphone. Once dried some of the medium was removed by my finger to expose the image of the microphone at the center. The duraflex print sits in an acrylic frame cushioned by a 1/2 inch of mentholated petrolatum.

Antropometria (after Yves Klein)

Pioneer at Art Helix Gallery

viewer engaging with Vicks VapoRub on plantain leaves and Vicks VapoRub filled syringes on wooden shelf

2017

Exhibited in 2017 for “Pioneer” at Art Helix Gallery, Colgão, Antropometria (after Yves Klein) is the second installation of a series of 4 works in the Colgão series. Viewers are invited to pick up plastic syringes filled with Vicks VapoRub and use them to draw on the plantain leaves hanging on the wall. 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. Materials that are commonly used in healthcare are repurposed in this work to highlight the relationship that can exist between the nature of the placebo effect and creativity.

Antropometria (after Yves Klein)

Pioneer at Art Helix Gallery

viewer engaging with Vicks VapoRub on plantain leaves and Vicks VapoRub filled syringes on wooden shelf

2017

Exhibited in 2017 for “Pioneer” at Art Helix Gallery, Colgão, Antropometria (after Yves Klein) is the second installation of a series of 4 works in the Colgão series. Viewers are invited to pick up plastic syringes filled with Vicks VapoRub and use them to draw on the plantain leaves hanging on the wall. 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. Materials that are commonly used in healthcare are repurposed in this work to highlight the relationship that can exist between the nature of the placebo effect and creativity.