I spent years painting photorealistically, trying to capture every detail. Now, I’m interested in what happens when details slip away from memory after you stop looking.
When the specific information of a scene disappears, we are left with '“afterimages”, the structure in basic shapes and light.
I use forgetting as a tool to strip away the excess and find the minimal forms we use to orient ourselves in space.
This ongoing series of over 150 paintings sits between recognition and abstraction. Rather than telling a story, these works show the logic of perception: how the mind reconstructs a whole world from just a few partial pieces of information.
Selected institutional caption (The Painting Center, 2026):
“Nathalie Vogel 🧠✨After years of painting photorealistically, Nathalie Vogel turned toward what happens after we stop looking. What remains when memory softens the image? What slips away, and what stubbornly stays?
Her work explores afterimages: basic shapes, light, and structure that linger once specific information disappears. Forgetting becomes a tool—stripping excess to reveal the minimal visual cues we use to orient ourselves in space.
🖼️ This ongoing series lives in the charged space between recognition and abstraction. Rather than narrating a story, the work maps the logic of perception—how the mind reconstructs a whole world from fragments.
Based in New York, Vogel’s sensitivity to surface comes from years spent doing touch-ups and repairs in people’s homes. A life shaped by movement and instability made painting her daily constant. Her process is simple and direct: look once, turn away, paint what briefly remains. These works emerge from quick memories—what gets lost, what shifts, and how images rebuild themselves when they’re no longer in front of us.”
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