STATEMENT / BIO
Nelson Saiers merges mathematics with his personal philosophy to find a new, visual way of exploring human nature. His art wrestles with the important mysteries of life: love, evil, human equality and the very nature of art. With his expertise in mathematics, he develops a logical framework from which to distill down and then sum up complex human ideas and address truth, just as mathematics is applied to other elaborate problems. To do so, he brings together seemingly disparate or disassociated concepts and subjects in a seamless and clean way. He creates a visual mathematics – something beyond equations and proofs – that beautifully actualizes a tightly knit package exposing a rational, simple truth in a powerful statement. In this vein, he constructs work that is at its essence minimalist, and even when it depicts representational subject matter, he uses these forms to convey abstract thought. Thus, Saiers not only uses mathematical theories but transcends them into something personal and mystifying.
Having grown up in Ethiopia and Afghanistan, Saiers' art is motivated by his childhood experiences surviving two wars including tanks firing outside his house in Afghanistan and being held up at machine gun point as a one year old. Having earned a PhD in mathematics at the age of 23, his art is informed by contributions to mathematics from the time of Euclid through the 20th century. His time working in the financial industry, including running a hedge fund called Saiers Capital, has provided him with insight into markets and their irrational behavior, further deepening his understanding of human nature en masse. He has assimilated these formidable experiences into a lens for assessing and critiquing the human condition. Because he has a unique way of seeing reality as a complex matrix of patterns and shapes, he provides a singularly original way of addressing the mysteries of humanity.
dan@susangrantlewin.com