About Nathan Terborg

Nathan Terborg, 1979, is an abstract artist who lives and works in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Insatiably curious since birth, he has always loved building things. He spent his first two professional decades building a company that he sold at the end of 2020, and has spent the time since then reigniting his passion for art full time.
His use of repurposed materials and destructive practices explores themes of addiction, recovery, grief, and growth.


artist statement

My work is driven by curiosity and a commitment to chasing wherever it leads. I believe that anything that makes a mark is an art tool. I believe that anything that holds a mark is an art material. I am drawn to things that would otherwise be hidden, dismissed, or discarded. Through collecting, scavenging, and occasionally dumpster diving, I repurpose a variety of waste into my work. Material with a past life has its own story to tell. Their scars are a special kind of beautiful.

My studio practice is driven by process. It is an ongoing cycle of exploration, excavation, and dissection. Some of these steps are delicate, while others are quite crude. They involve all varieties of hand, power and surgical tools to pull, break, cut, burn, scratch, and carve. I want to see what's inside. I want to know how it got there. I want to share the physical evidence of my findings and invite the viewer to start their own conversation.


LOVE LETTER TO LAYERS

"I’ve found that the absence of space to overthink produces a different type of focus and dependence on intuition over intellectualization.
It’s stressful, but it’s a useful kind of stress- especially when paired with a perspective that it will ultimately be what it is supposed to be.

This all led to what became a love letter to layers. There’s always something else hidden beneath what is seen- something else to expose. That's the part of the process that I look forward to the most."