NATHANIEL SULLIVAN
(b. 1976, Vancouver, Canada; lives and works in Bronx, NY)
Nathaniel Sullivan is an artist based in the Bronx, New York working across video, multimedia lecture performance, sound collage, and site-based drifts. His practice examines opaque systems of power, bureaucracy, and myth by moving between factual research and speculative counterfiction. Often beginning with an actual person, place, or event, he pulls at the language, rituals, and logic of rational systems until their seams begin to show.
Selected presentations include Documenta 14 (Kassel), FilmWinter (Stuttgart), Code+ Festival (Buenos Aires), and performances at Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson and Vox Populi (Philadelphia), as well as New York venues including Flux Factory and Smack Mellon. He has participated in international screenings and performances across Europe, North and South America.
SELECTED PROJECT TRAJECTORIES
The Nation Is Bankrupt, 2012–ongoing: Long-form multimedia project spanning lecture performance, video, writing, sound, and site-based work around the cultural and libidinal afterlife of the 2008 financial crisis. Presented at Documenta 14, Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson, Carnegie Mellon University, Vox Populi, Flux Factory, Smack Mellon, May Day Rooms, and IIPPE conferences in Berlin, Pula, Lille, Bologna, and Madrid.
Davosboros / A Neoliberal Zion, 2022–2024: Video, performance, and installation works examining elite futurity, apocalypse fantasy, corporate speech, and the language of global capitalism. Presented through Filmwinter Stuttgart, IIPPE Bologna and Madrid, 48hr Neukölln Berlin, nodoCARACAS, and related live and online contexts.
Hand of God, 2024–2026: Recent video and sound-based works circulating through screenings and installations in New York, Los Angeles, Istanbul and Caracas.
A View From Above and early lecture-performance / video works, 2009–2015: Early works combining performance, video, speculative documentary, athletics, masculinity, and bodily narrative. Presented at San Diego Art Institute, Flux Factory, I-Park, Everson Museum of Art, Filmwinter Stuttgart, Vienna Shorts, and related screening contexts.
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
Los Angeles Center for Digital Art, Los Angeles, CA, September 4-27, 2025, Hand of God
Filmwinter, Stuttgart, Germany, January 12-15, 2023, Davosboros
Yeh Gallery, St. John’s, Queens, NY, September 2 - November 16, 2018, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt
Debt+, Flux Factory, Queens, NY, June 3-24, 2016, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt
Deconstructing the Habit, Spattered Columns, New York, NY, June 6-23, 2012, The Last Meal
SPECIAL PROJECTS
(Re)Verb, November 2021, BTNWB, geotagged audio tour of wall street
Vice Magazine, The Wall Street Issue, December 2014, Letters From The Lost Weekend (with Rose Cromwell)
Hotel Wars, Flux Factory, Queens, NY, October 1-31, 2015
Drain Magazine, Vol 12:1, Athleticism 2015 The Artist Who Plays Basketball
SELECTED SCREENINGS / PERFORMANCES
2026
Bronx Frame at Andrew Freedman Home, Bronx, NY, April 22, 2026, Hand of God
2025
Invisible Load, Istanbul, Turkey, October 25, 2025, Hand of God, Ghosts of Empire, screening
X Festival Video nodoCCS, Caracas, Venezuela, 2025, Hand of God, screening
Springs Projects, Brooklyn, NY, September 3, 2025, BTNWB Letter to Lover #1, screening
Bronx Council on the Arts, Bronx, NY, August 28, 2025, Hand of God, screening
La Nacional, New York, NY, July 15, 2025, Hand of God, screening
2024
IIPPE Conference, Istanbul, Turkey, September 4-7, 2024, Hand of God, screening & conference presentation
2022
48hr Neukölln, Berlin, Germany, June 24-26, 2022, Davosboros, performance
PAUSA, Bronx River Arts Center, Bronx, NY, April 29, 2022, A Grim Reminder, performance
Maine College of Art & Design, Portland, ME, March 25, 2022, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt, performance
2021
Simultan Festival, Timișoara, Romania, September 11-19, 2021, WTNWB: Letter To Judy, screening
2020
Ojo De Agua Film Festival, Guanajuato, Mexico, October 31, 2020, BTNWB: Letter to William Winters, screening
Barcelona Video Festival, Barcelona, Spain, October 23-30, 2020, BTNWB: Letter to William Winters screening
Under the Subway Video Festival, September 12 and 19, 2020, I Work In Finance: Crockett’s Theme, screening
2019
Fail Safe, Glitterbox Theater, Pittsburgh, PA, November 17, 2019, Amnelysia, performance
May Day Rooms, London, England, July 13, 2019, The Nation Is Bankrupt, performance
Nieuwland, Amsterdam, Netherlands, July 8, 2019, The Nation Is 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, BTNWB Letter To William Winters, screening
Museum of Contemporary Art Tucson, Tucson, AZ, March 2, 2018, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt, performance
Now & After Festival, Moscow, Russia, February 7-16, 2018, BTNWB: Letter to William Winters, screening
2017
SLA307, New York, NY, December 1, 2017, While The Nation Went Bankrupt, performance
Digital BigScreen, Trbovje, Slovenia, September 14-16, 2017, BTNWB: Letter To Lover #2, screening
Documenta 14, Kassel, Germany, July 23, 2017, BTNWB: Letter to William Winters, screening
Economia, Eindhoven, Netherlands, April 28-30, 2017, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt, screening
2016
Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA, November 9, 2016, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt, performance
Dividing Zero, Vox Populi, Philadelphia, PA, December 17, 2016, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt, performance
2015
On Fixation, Dixon Place, New York, NY, August 19, 2015, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt, performance
Authorized Mythologies, 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, performance
2014
Prelude Festival, New York, NY, October 10, 2014, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt, performance
Man of My Dreams, American Medium, Brooklyn, NY, May 27, 2014, Good Morning To My Inbox, performance
2013
‘13’ Nuit Blanche, Propeller Center for the Arts, Toronto, ON, November 5, 2013, Thirteen, screening
Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival, Brooklyn, NY, July 20-21, 2013, performance
Start the Car, Galapagos Art Space, Brooklyn, NY, May 29, 2013, Before The Nation Went Bankrupt, performance
Performance Heart, Grace Exhibition Space, Brooklyn, NY, March 19, 2013, performance
2012
CONFLUX 2012, New York University, New York, NY, October 20-21, 2012, All That You Desire, performance
PS122 / Performance Space New York, New York, NY, March 24, 2012, Cute, screening
SELECTED PRESS / PUBLICATIONS
Reviews
Elisa Almino, “Imagining The Life of The 0.01%,” Hyperallergic, November 2017
Hrag Vartanian, “Brooklyn International Performance Art Festival,” Hyperallergic, July 2013
David Laggacia, “All That You Desire,” Hyperallergic, October 2012
David Laggacia, “A Night Of Performance Art Brings Soho Back To Its Roots,” Hyperallergic, July 2012
Anthologies
Institution is a Verb: A Panoply Performance Lab Compendium, 2012-2018, Esther Neff, The Operating System, 2021
Anthology: Emergency Index: Vol. 8, 2019, Ugly Duckling Presse, pp. 136-137
Anthology: Emergency Index: Vol. 3, 2014, Ugly Duckling Presse, pp. 58-59
RESIDENCIES
Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NE
Contemporary Arts Center, Troy, NY
I-Park, East Haddam, CT
EDUCATION
2011 Master of Fine Arts, Transmedia, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY
2007 Bachelor of Fine Arts, Simon Fraser University, British Columbia, Canada