Nate Mahoney creates art inspired by dualities. Design and art. Rural and urban. Photography and painting. Analog and digital. The work is centered on compassion for others trying to survive in our complex and inhospitable world. As a queer artist, and urban dweller, Nate reacts to the city with inspired work that communicates connections between people, time, nature, place, and space. Nate’s works often result from a research practice and collaborative process.
Nate received a MFA in Design from California College of the Arts, a MFA in Cinema and Photography from Southern Illinois University, and a BA in Liberal Arts from The Evergreen State College.
Nate lives and works in downtown San Francisco, California.
🎨 As an artist and passionate contemporary art enthusiast, he designs events to bring artists together in support of the arts community.
Art is always
better with
friends.
🎶 “My approach to organizing art events is collaborative. I partner with non-profits, curators, local galleries, musicians, venues, and organizations like The Urbanist and to create experiences that span from art openings to curated retail spaces.”
❤️ Join us at my art events, bring a friend, and let’s come together to celebrate the art of our time.
More about my journey.
I grew up the son of a working class family where art was taken seriously. My mother, a first generation college graduate and art teacher, found The Evergreen State College for me when I was in high school. She saw something in me the conventional world was not yet ready to name. Evergreen changed everything for me.
I came to the Bay Area in 2003 and San Francisco in 2006 for graduate school at California College of the Arts. My MFA thesis was a video installation projected on the window of Harvey Milk’s former camera store on Castro Street. Gus Van Sant was filming MILK on that same block. I was surrounded by important community history and did not yet fully know what I was building toward.
I took design research jobs because I needed to survive in a place I loved and I was good at the work. The Bay Area absorbed design research into tech and I reluctantly went with it. For years I worked on projects that did not satisfy my artistic needs.
At 50 I stopped and went back to what I have always been.
Nate Mahoney Studio is what that looks like. An artist and curator building intimate experiences where art, community, and culture come alive.
First, I came out as gay in San Francisco, then I came out as an artist in this city. Neither was easy. Neither was optional.
I’m not buying my way into the arts. I am finally finding my way back.
Nate Mahoney, San Francisco, California.