Patrick Nagel
July 27 – September 7, 2014
Opening reception: Sunday, July 27, 2014, 7–9PM

2A Gallery is pleased to present an exhibition of work by Patrick Nagel, opening Sunday, July 27, 2014 from 6–9PM and running through September 7, 2014. This exhibition consists of posters published by Mirage Editions during and shortly after his untimely passing in 1984 at the age of 38.

Patrick Nagel’s posters have been in the forefront of the contemporary trend to move advertising art away from the product to other images; they also have an independent existence as a graphic form, tending to obliterate the line between fine and applied arts. His poster work is a successful amalgamation of art form and advertising medium, following the tradition of the early masters.

Patrick Nagel was born in Dayton, Ohio in 1945, and was raised in the Los Angeles area. He studied fine art at Chouinard Art Institute and at California State University, Fullerton, where he received a bachelor of fine arts degree in 1969 in painting and graphic design. After graduation, he began teaching at the Art Center College of Design, while simultaneously establishing himself as a free-lance designer, illustrator, and painter. His wife, Jennifer Dumas, a successful model, had a great influence on his life and art. She occasionally posed for him, and some have speculated she was the inspiration for the concept we recognize as the Nagel woman.

Nagel had several one-man shows of paintings and graphics: a retrospective at the prestigious Grunwald Center for the Graphic Arts at UCLA; inclusions in exhibitions at the Smithsonian Institute and the Library of Congress; and numerous painting commissions, from the White House, IBM, MGM, United Artists, Universal Studies, Harpers, and Psychology Today, among others. Nagel’s artistic legacy is vast. His work can be found in the permanent collections of the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian Institution, the Musee des Arts Decoratifs, and the Musee de L’Affiche, in Paris, as well as in the hands of many fortunate private collectors.

– Elena G. Millie, Curator of the Poster Collection, Library of Congress, 1984.

2A Gallery is located at 400 S Main St #2A, Los Angeles, CA 90013 on the second floor of the San Fernando Building. Founded in August 2013, 2A Gallery is an independent artist/curator-run project designed to utilize a particularly unique space as a venue for creative production and exhibition. 2A Gallery occupies a small office space in a renovated downtown building. Each exhibition has an opening and closing reception. Otherwise, the space is open by appointment by emailing [email protected] or calling 213.924.3472.