In 2003 I picked up a book "Kali:The Black Goddess" by Elizabeh Harding, which described some of the tantric practices of this cult. One concept in particular caught my attention "... to overcome one's attachment is not as difficult as mastering one's aversions." I can apply this to the development of my artwork in the following way:
I have noticed that the art I most detested in the past somehow surfaces in my work years later. In 1990 I would never have envisioned myself making figurative sculpture, much less cast in bronze. At that time I was making abstract paintings, concentrating on pattern and form. I disliked expressionist gestures. I looked for techniques that created organic forms devoid of the artist's hand.


In 1980 I traveled to Japan, a thoroughly exotic place to me, with the mysterious temples and incense. Stone sculptures were dressed with bibs and little hats! I found a continuation of that ritualizing activity in India, where icons were smeared with pigments and covered with flowers. By 1995 I wanted to make things that would be touched. I started casting small porcelains and this activity developed over a number of years into the complicated, combine forms that you see now. Ironically I find myself deep within the territory of expressionist sculpture, something I sought to avoid in painting decades ago.


Aversion is, of course, the shadow side of my huge attraction to nature, both as a total environment, and the specific shapes and textures of plants; tree bark as skin, leaves as fingers, branches as the arms and legs of a body. My sculptures grow out of the bodily suggestions of plants and are, in a certain sense, grotesque because the human characteristics are distorted. However, the stitched together appearance of the sculptures make sense. Like the husks left behind by the transient body, they are both solid and illusionary.


I was not raised in a religious household, nor do I hold any religious beliefs. So for my work to connect to human culture thru this channel surprises me, but then I think, yes, once again I'm engaged with the very thing I used to hate.

BIOGRAPHY

Born in Los Angeles, California — Resides in Venice, California

EDUCATION

University of California, Berkeley, BFA

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2016  Jason Vass, Los Angeles, "Tree.Lingam.Void." 

2015  anotheryearinLA online gallery, "Living Quietly Among Things"

2012  Prospectus, Los Angeles, "Past is Present"

2008  Cardwell Jimmerson, Culver City, "Psychic River"  

2006  Dangerous Curve, Los Angeles,  "Keeping Body & Soul Together"  

1999  POST Gallery, Los Angeles,  "Mix It Up"  

1997  Ben Meltz Gallery at Otis School of Art & Design, "Clip-On's"  

1995  Gasworks Studios, London, "The Oval"  

1994  Sue Spaid Fine Art, Los Angeles, "Let Me Through"  

1993  Sue Spaid Fine Art, "Motel Paintings"

1992  Sue Spaid Fine Art, "The Mango"

TWO/THREE PERSON EXHIBITIONS

1995  "Early Spring", Marc Foxx Gallery 

1994  "Nancy Evans & Roy Dowell", Fawbush Gallery, NYC

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2016  "UrbanNature", Art Center College of Design, Pasadena CA (curator Constance Mallinson)
2015  "StudioSystem", Torrance Art Museum (TAM), Torrance, Ca
         "BOX.ART.SHOW." PØST, Los Angeles (artist/organizer)
2013  "Decomposition", Fellows of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (Curator, Constance Mallinson)
2012  "Facing West/looking East", Oceanside Museum of Art, (Curator, Richard Turner)  
          "California Sculpture", AnotherYearInLA, Los Angeles 
2010  "Genre Studies", Cardwell Jimmerson, Culver City, CA
          "Ou-boum", Long Beach City College Gallery (Curator, Linda Day)  
2008  "Good Doll/Bad Doll", Pasadena Armory for the Arts, Pasadena, (Curator, Michael Duncan)
         "LA Weekly Biennal", Track 16 Gallery, LA (Curator, Doug Harvey)  
2007  "Drawn In:Drawing in Residence Phase III",  Torrance Art Museum (Curator, Marcy Freeman)  
2002  "LA Post Cool", San Jose Museum of Art, (Curator, Michael Duncan)  
2001  "Between Representation: LA's Greatest Unsigned Artists", INMO Gallery, LA (Curator, Doug Harvey) 
         "The Importance of Being Earnest", Occidental College, LA, (Curator, Michael Duncan) 
2000  Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH, "An Active Life", (Curator, Sue Spaid) 
         Schmidt Contemporary Art of Los Angeles, "PaintLand", (Curator, Terry Meyers)  
         The Work Space, New York City , "That Perfect Place", (Curator, Theresa Hackett) 
         Cypress College Art Gallery, Cypress, CA "Fahrenheit 2000",  (Curator, Paul Paiement)    
1998  UCSB College of Creative Studies, Santa Barbara,
         "Sick of Photography", (Curator, Michael Darling)            

PERFORMANCE

1989  "Sleep a Little Death", Newport Harbor Art Museum,Newport, CA
          (Collaboration, Funded by Rockefellow Foundation)

1987  "The Ephemeral Nature of Madame de Sade", LACE, Los Angeles (Collaboration, Funded by NEA)

1986  "Tiny Alice", various location in Los Angeles

1985  "Urban Fever", various location in Los Angeles

AWARDS AND GRANTS

2015  Center For Cultural Innovation 

        Working Artist Award

2008  Joan Mitchell Foundation Grant for Painters & Sculptors   

1988  Rockefeller Foundation Grant for Collaborative Projects

1987  National Endowment for the Arts, Collaborative Artist Grant

SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY

 

  • Leah Ollman, "Nancy Evans Marries Metaphor and Myth at Jason Vass Gallery,LATimes, June 29, 2016

  • Constance Mallinson, Nancy Evans at Jason Vass, Altillary Magazine, September 6, 2016

  • Duncan, Michael, Nancy Evans at Dangerous Curve, (Image) Art in America, March 2007

  • Freeman, Tom, "Immodesty", (Image), Artweek, November 2006

  • Darling, Michael, "Fresh Paint", LAWeekly, Jan 29, 1999

  • Wilson, William, "Clip-On's", Los Angeles Times, (Image) April 22, 1997

  • Weissman, Benjamin, Artforum, (Image) Summer 1994

  • Tager, Alisa, Art in America, (Image) October 1993

  • Duncan, Michael, "LAX", Art in America, April 1993

  • Pagel, David, "Smart & Sensuous", LA Times, March 4,1993

  • Greene, David, "Nancy Evans", Art Issues, November 1992

  • Pagel, David, "Artistic Breakthrough", LA Times, Sept 10, 1992

  • Frank, Peter, "To be Gifted, Young and Los Angeleno", Visions, 1989

  • Curtis, Cathy, "Nancy Evans de Sade, LA Times, Sept. 11, 1987

  • Apple, Jackie, "The Esthetic of the Perverse", LA Times, Oct.24, 1987

  • Lawrence, Dianne V., "Nancy Evans-Tiny Alice", High Performance, Issue #37,1987, pp 82

  • Evans, Nancy, "Tiny Alice", original text, LAICA Journal, Summer 1986

 

RESIDENCIES & ART FAIRS

2015  Rhy Art Fair Basel, Switzerland

2012  Berliner-Liste Art Fair, Berlin

2008  Art Channel- Beijing 

1995  Gasworks Studios, London

1994  Art Omi, New York State

COMMUNITY ACTIVITES

1993-1996  Board of Directors & Performance Committee Chair,  Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions
  (LACE)

1991-1993  Board of Directors, Foundation for Art Resources (FAR)

PRESS

..."Evans has been one of the city’s most consistent, and consistently underrated, visual artists of the past few decades." Doug Harvey, Los Angeles Magazine, April 25, 2013

..."Evans still finds time to produce beautiful stains." LA Weekly January 11-17,  2008

..."Artists seeking inspiration from the waters of Venice Beach" ... David Ng, LA Times, April 17, 2008 

..."these sculptures take her enterprise into a transcendent new realm." Michael Duncan, Art in America, March 2007 (Dangerous Curve)

"One of L.A.'s most consistently inventive abstract artists"... Michael Duncan, LA Weekly, October 28-November 3, 2005

"One of the most fearless and original painters working in LA" ... Michael Darling, Fresh Paint, LA Weekly, January 29-February 4, 1999

..."the L.A. artist in possession of an unusual poetic resonance"... William Wilson, LATimes, Tuesday, April 22, 1997

..."Animated by a sense of play"...  Michael Duncan, Art in America, October, 1997

..."a great LA secret... disarming, comic, and genuine"...  Benjamin Weissman, Artforum, September 1994

..."poke fun at the mysterious, highbrow opacity of much abstract painting"...  David Greene, Art Issues, November/December 1992

..."Their hand-crafted feel gives them a sort of "aw shucks" humility"...  David Pagel, LATimes, Thursday, September 10,1992

Art of the City: The Artists, Doug Harvey, Los Angeles Magazine April 2013

Art and water beyond watercolors, David Ng, Los Angeles Times 2008

Nancy Evans at Dangerous Curve, Michael Duncan,  Art in America March 2007

Nancy Evans, Michael Duncan, LA Weekly 2005

Fresh Paint, Michael Darling, LA Weekly 1999

'Clip Ons' Collection Attaches Itself to Wonders of Nature, William Wilson, Los Angeles Times 1997

Nancy Evans at Otis College of Art & Design, Michael Duncan, Art in America 1997

Nancy Evans, Sue Spaid Fine Art, Benjamin Weissman, Artforum, 1994

Nancy Evans, Sue Spaid Fine Art, David A. Greene, Art Issues 1992

Ruffles and Tassels at LACE 1987