Nathan Aufrichtig – Biography
Nathan Aufrichtig (b. 1975, Connecticut) is a contemporary abstract painter based in Santa Fe, New Mexico. His practice explores gestural abstraction as a means of translating interior experience into visual form. Deeply intuitive and process-driven, his work is characterized by a nuanced sensitivity to surface, tone, and materiality.
Raised in an artistic household, Aufrichtig was immersed in creative disciplines from an early age. His parents—both professional artists—instilled in him a foundational understanding of form, color, and craftsmanship. The influence of his father’s ceramic glazes continues to resonate in the tonal depth and layered surfaces of his paintings.
Aufrichtig began his artistic career as a sculptor and ceramicist before transitioning into the field of art conservation. Over the course of a decade, he contributed to the restoration of major artworks, including paintings by Georgia O’Keeffe. This period of sustained engagement with historical materials and techniques profoundly shaped his own artistic methodology and conceptual approach.
Since dedicating himself fully to painting, Aufrichtig has developed a distinctive visual language rooted in daily practice and emotional immediacy. His compositions emerge through an organic process of accumulation, erasure, and revision—an ongoing inquiry into presence, memory, and perception.
“Painting is not simply what I do—it is who I am. It allows me to articulate the inexpressible and engage directly with my inner world.”
Aufrichtig’s work continues to evolve as a personal and philosophical investigation into the potential of abstraction to communicate beyond language.
Artist Statement
My practice centers on the subconscious as a generative force—a reservoir of latent imagery, emotion, and energy that I seek to access through abstraction. I approach painting not as a process of invention, but as one of discovery: an excavation of internal landscapes where color, form, and motion arise spontaneously and evolve into complex visual fields.
When I close my eyes, I often encounter a black void that bursts into shifting, luminous scenes. These ephemeral visions—at first chaotic and fluid—gradually settle into more defined compositions as I translate them onto canvas. Through successive layers of texture and colors, I work toward a moment of stillness, when the painting begins to assert its presence and clarity emerges from ambiguity.
I liken this process to diving into deep, still water: the initial descent is disorienting, a flurry of bubbles and light, but with time, clarity returns and hidden forms come into focus. This metaphor guides my studio practice, where I seek to reveal what lies beneath the surface of conscious thought—forms and energies that are felt before they are known.
My paintings resist literal interpretation, favoring instead a language of abstraction that encourages open-ended engagement. The organic rhythms and ambiguous structures invite viewers into a shared space of contemplation, where individual memory and imagination can activate new meanings. In this way, the work functions as a kind of portal—bridging private interior experience with a broader, collective subconscious.
Drawing from a lineage of artists who have engaged the spiritual and metaphysical dimensions of abstraction, I aim to create visual environments that foster introspection, emotional resonance, and a sense of wonder. Ultimately, I hope my paintings serve as catalysts—for quiet reflection, creative possibility, and deeper connection with the unseen forces that shape our inner lives.