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Email PageStacks and Layers
September 5, 2007- October 13, 2007
Reception: September 5, 6:00 pm - 8:00 pm
Nancy Switzer
Jenkins Johnson Gallery
521 W 26th St Nancy Switzer Down Up (2007) |
In our fast-paced world of constant visual stimuli, Nancy Switzer paints to provide a meditative escape into a realm of serene objects. Switzer has made a name for herself painting rich still lives of seemingly mundane items that she imbues with vivacity and life. Managing to bring excitement and exuberance to her compositions, she breaks the mold of assumption in contemporary art that still life is banal and stuffy without crossing the boundary into hyperbole.
An artist from day one, Switzer was encouraged by her mother to embrace all forms of artistic endeavor. As a child, she studied and excelled in classical music. Her mastery of the violin even earned her a place with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, but her love of the visual arts prevailed and prompted her to kindle an affair with painting.
Switzer is an artist of light and movement. Her subject matter ranges from soup cans and fish to kitchen utensils and sunglasses. The common link is their extraordinary reflective properties, which Switzer translates through impasto brush strokes and cunning use of color. Her latest work for the exhibition Stacks and Layers shows an innovative turn as she plays with the intensity of the neutral palette. Pairing shades of grey with ochre and highlighting with dabs of bright white, Switzer is ever growing her contemplations and exploring objects’ inherent reflections on her canvas. Each brush stroke is responsible for delivering a sliver of light and shadow that when united bring the composition as a whole to life. Her attention to detail is what propels each of her objects out of their staging and into the perceived, three-dimensional space of the viewer.
Switzer’s ability to play out the dance between light and shadow is also due to her fascination with texture and a major facet of her definite style. In Pillow Pile, Switzer emphases a texturally flat background whose subtle deviations of tone balance the high impasto of the foreground. A closer look reveals the pillows are built with elements from her palette as diverse as orange, purple, light blue, and green. The high technical merit of her talent as an architect of color is understood in this manner. It is the essence of her work. Moreover, the thick brushwork never compromises the overall composition or overpowers the objects.
The juxtaposition of unrelated items compounded with a dissection of light and color makes each of Switzer’s paintings a visual experience that guides the viewer through a contemplative maze. Realistic representation is not her goal; rather, she courts all of the elements she engages to create work of compelling irony and phenomenal vibrancy.
Nancy Switzer received her BFA from Virginia Commonwealth University after studying at the Rhode Island School of Design. Switzer has been featured in solo and group shows at the Jenkins Johnson Gallery since 1997. She has been exhibited with such artists as Wayne Thiebaud, Ralph Goings, Steven Assael, and Richard Estes. Switzer was recently featured in an exhibition at Longmont Museum in Colorado and in the past she has participated in numerous group shows, most notably at Arnot Art Museum; Steuben Gallery, University of Rochester, New York; Colorado History Museum; Boca Raton Museum of Art; and, Art Institute of Southern California.
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Jenkins Johnson Gallery was last updated: 2008-10-11
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