About

Nathaniel Sullivan is a creative non-fiction artist, based in New York City. He makes documentary videos, multimedia lecture performances and site-specific guided tours. He uses these forms of truth telling to combine facts with speculative ideas in order to explore the roots of power and social control.

Often, he uses one character and an event from their real life as a way into the story. He has made work about Francois Mitterrand’s rumored last meal, Wilt Chamberlain’s mythological sex life, and for over a decade has performed a multi part lecture performance using the semi-fictional love letters JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, tracking real events in the financial world with speculative desire, in order to create a parallel history of the 2008 financial crisis. Sometimes, he takes it to the streets. He has led a guided tour of an abandoned housing project re-imagined as a Richard Serra sculpture, conducted a seminar on desire from the back of a limousine and performed for one person at a Brooklyn Nets game.

Currently, he is working on a walking tour performance called A Neoliberal Zion, which explores the myriad contradictions embedded in the architecture of Hudson Yards, a new 25 billion dollar development on Manhattan’s west side, and Davosboros, a virtual lecture performance and video series that plunges the depths of the psychological disorders of elite men. In addition, he is developing an experimental documentary called Hand of God, that explores the legacies of colonialism in modern day neoliberalism, and the emergence of authoritarian capitalism.

Sullivan has exhibited in festivals, galleries and alternative art spaces worldwide, most recently a networked performance and installation at FilmWinter 36 in Stuttgart, Germany, a screening at Code+ in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and in a program of video art at Documenta 14. He has been an artist in residence at Contemporary Arts Center in Troy, New York, at I-Park in East Haddam, Connecticut and the Bemis Center in Omaha, Nebraska. He holds a BFA in Film from Simon Fraser University and an MFA in Art Video from Syracuse University.

CV

EXHIBITIONS / SCREENINGS / PERFORMANCES / PUBLICATIONS

2023

IIPPE Committee on Activism, September 6-8, 2023, Madrid, Spain, A Neoliberal Zion, performance

Filmwinter, Stuttgart, Germany, January 12-15, 2023, Davosboros, online performance and installation

2022

VIII nodoCARACASl Video Festival, Raise, Caracas Venezuela, November 18-20, 2022, Davosboros: Elon Musk, video screening

IIPPE Committee on Activism, September 7-9, 2022, Bologna, Italy, Davosboros, performance

48hr Neukolin, Berlin, Germany, June 24-26, 2022, Davosboros, installation & online performance

PAUSA, Bronx River Arts Center, April 29, 2022, A Grim Reminder of What Came Before and Very Well May Continue, performance

Maine College of Art & Design, March 25, 2022, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt, online performance

2021

(Re)Verb, (online - published on Gesso), November 2021, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt, Wall Street Edition, augmented audio

Simultan Festival XV: The Unstable State of Things, Timișoara, Romania, September 11-19, 2021, While The Nation Went Bankrupt: Letter To Judy, video screening

IIPPE Conference, (Online) September 12-19, 2021, The Criminal Type (After Galton), multimedia online performance

2020

Ojo De Agua Film Festival, Guanajuato, Mexico, December 20, 2020, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt: Letter to William Winters, video screening

The VI Festival de Video nodoCCS, Kristiansand, Norway, November 14-22, 2020, Why Financier’s Love Abstract Art, video screening.

Barcelona Short Film & Video Festival, Barcelona, Spain, October 23-30, 2020, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt: Letter to William Winters, video screening

IIPPE, Committee on Activism, October 23, 2020, I Work In Finance, But Don’t Hold That Against Me, video screening

Under the Subway Video Festival (online) September 12 & 19 2020, I Work In Finance: Crockett’s Theme, video screening

2019

Fail Safe, Glitterbox Theatre, Pittsburgh, PA, November 17, 2019 Amnelysia performance

May Day Rooms, London, England, July 13, 2019, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt, performance

Nieuwland, Amsterdam, Netherlands, July 8, 2019, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt, performance

IIPPE, Committee on Activism, Lille, France July 3-5, 2019, While The Nation Went Bankrupt, performance

Wicket Leeks, Flux Factory, Queens, NY June 25, 2019, A View From Above: The Pre Game Meal, performance

Itinerant Festival, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY, May 24, 2019, Amnelysia, performance

2018

Code+ Festival 2018, Buenos Aires, Argentina, November 16-17, 2018, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt: Letter To Bill Winters, video screening

IIPPE Committee on Activism, Pula, Croatia, September 12-14, 2018, Amnelysia, performance

St. John’s University Art Gallery, Queens, NY, September 2 - November 16, 2018. Before The Nation Went Bankrupt, video installation

Itinerant Festival, Staten Island Arts, New York, NY, May 20, 2018, A Guided Tour of the JP Morgan Chase Art Collection with Chip Barrington-Pemberwell, performance

User Error, Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson, Arizona, March 2, 2018, Jamie Dimon: Before The Nation Went Bankrupt, performance

Now & After International Video Art Festival, Moscow, Russia, February 7-16, 2018, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt: Letter to Bill Winters, video screening

2017

SLA307 Gallery, New York, NY December 1, 2017

IIPPE Committee on Activism, Berlin, Germany September 13-15, 2017, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt, performance

Digital BigScreen Trbovje, Solvenia, September 14-16 2017, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt: Letter To Lover #2, video screening

We Are All In This Together, A Road Map Through A Post-Truth Art World, Transmission Video Art Festival, July 20-23, 2017, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt: Letter To Bill Winters, video screening

UND#9,Dragonenkaserne Karlsruhe, Germany
Komuna//Warszawa, Warszawa, Poland
Documenta 14, KMMN Kulturbahnhof, Kassel Germany

Economia, A Festival on Economy Without The Economists, Eindhoven, NL, April 28-30, 2017, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt, video screening

Filmideo, Index Art Center, Newark, NJ, April 22, 2017, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt: Letter To Lover #1, video screening

2016

Dividing Zero, Vox Populi, Philadelphia, PA. December 16, 2016, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt, performance

Kresge Theatre, Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA. November 9, 2016, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt, performance

Debt+ , Flux Factory, Queens, NY. June 3-24, 2016

Before The Nation Went Bankrupt, video screening
Remembering Capitalism, performance

2015

Performancy Forum, Panoply Performance Lab, Brooklyn, NY October 18, 2015, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt, performance

Hotel Wars, Flux Factory, Queens, NY. October 1-31, 2015

Drain: Journal of Art and Culture, Issue: Athleticism, 2015, The Artist Plays Basketball

Dixon Place, New York, NY, August 19, 2015, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt, performance

San Diego Art Institute, San Diego, CA, March 27, 2015, A View From Above, performance

Dixon Place, New York, NY January 7, 2015, Good Morning To My Inbox, To My Penis, To My Impending Demise, performance

2014

Prelude Festival CUNY, New York, NY. October 10, 2014, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt, performance,

Collaborative Concepts at Saunders Farm, Garrison, NY, August 30, 2014, A Modest Proposal, performance

American Medium, Brooklyn, NY, May 27, 2014 Good Morning to my inbox, my Penis and to My Impending Demise performance

Sunview Luncheonette, Brooklyn, NY, March 05, 2014, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt (2 acts), performance

2013

Enclave Series Cake Shop, New York, NY, December 14, 2013 Dating in New York and the Movement of Bodily Fluid, performance

Start the Car: Surprises, Galapagos Art Space, Brooklyn, NY December 12, 2013

Shifting Identities, SPARK! Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, November 22, 2013 Before The Nation Went Bankrupt, performance

‘13’ Nuit Blanche, Propeller Center for the Arts, Toronto, Ontario, November 5, 2013, ‘Thirteen’, video screening

Start the Car: Getting Lost, Galapagos Art Space, Brooklyn, NY,October 10, 2013, Good Morning To My Inbox, to My Penis, To My Impending Demise, performance

Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival, Brooklyn NY.

July 20, 2013, The Last Meal, performance
July 21, 2013, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt, performance

Start the Car: Stories of Change, Galapagos Art Space, Brooklyn, NY, May 29, 2013 Before The Nation Went Bankrupt, performance

Fake It Till You Make It, Flux Factory, Queens, NY, May 15, 2013

Performance Heart, Grace Exhibition Space, Brooklyn, NY, March 19, 2013, Dating In New York and the Movement of Bodily Fluid, performance

This Red Door, Kunsthalle Galapagos, Brooklyn, NY, January 15, 2013, Dating in New York and the Movement of Bodily Fluid, performance

PRESS/PUBLICATIONS LINKS

Institution is a Verb: A Panoply Performance Lab Compendium, 2012-2018, Esther Neff, Anya Evans, Tsedaye Makonnen, Elizabeth Lamb, The Operating System, 2021

Anthology: Emergency Index: An Annual Document of Performance Practice, Vol. 8, 2019, Ugly Duckling Presse; p.136-137

Imagining The Life of The 0.01%, Hyperallergic, November, 2017 by Elisa Almino

Review: Economia: Short Films About Finance, May 2017

Writing: The Artist Who Plays Basketball, Drain Magazine, 2015

Project: Letters From A Lost Weekend: Vice Magazine, Wall Street Issue December 2014

Anthology: Emergency Index: An Annual Document of Performance Practice, Vol. 3, 2014, Ugly Duckling Presse; p.58-59

Review: Images From The Final Week of The Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival, Hrag Vartanian,Hyperallergic, July 2013

Review: All That You Desire, David Laggacia, Hyperallergic, October 2012

Review: A Night Of Performance Art Brings Soho Back To Its Roots, David Lagaccia, Hyperallergic, July 2012