Nancy Azara

The Trustees of the Saint-Gaudens Memorial are proud to present the work of Nancy Azara in her exhibition, Passage of the Ghost Ship: Trees and Vines, showing at the Saint-Gaudens Picture Gallery in Cornish, NH.

Nancy Azara will be showing sculptural pieces made from carved and painted wood, as well as collage/scrolls made with large rubbings and painted cutouts on Mylar scrolls. Azara cites her life-long admiration of trees and their capacity for metaphor as the source of her use of wood in much of her sculptural work, and her use of leaf and handprint imagery in her scroll pieces as a way of navigating the notion of memory. Art Historian Harry Weil writes of Passage of the Ghost Ship: Trees and Vines: “Azara’s new body of work appears to us as if apparitions from an ancient forest or a forgotten garden. They are restless creations made of vines and branches that have refused to decay despite no longer blossoming with the buds or fruits of springtime. Like cherished memories of long lost love, the works are unwavering in their persistence while seemingly unfamiliar in their appearance. They now are but little more than fragile possessions, too cherished to let go, too weighty to carry.  Painted a ghostly white, works like Sweet Pea, Ghost Ship and Twisted Limb have the faintest hints of life with bits of aluminum gilding. It is a reminder that the radiance of hope survives the passing of time.”

Nancy Azara has exhibited her work extensively in both group and solo shows across the United States and internationally. She has served as a guest lecturer at a variety of organizations, has had residencies in the United States, Canada, Europe, and India, and was the featured sculptor at the SANYI Museum in Taiwan in 2008. Azara’s work is included in the collections of such institutions as the Museum of Modern Art, NYC, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC, and the Yale Museum in New Haven, CT. Azara has written a book entitled Spirit Taking Form: Making a Spiritual Practice of Making Art, and was a founder of the New York Feminist Art Institute (NYFAI) in 1979. Azara currently lives in NYC, NY and more information about her work can be found at nancyazara.com

Passage of the Ghost Ship: Trees and Vines will open Saturday, July 22nd with a reception from 4:30 to 6:00 and an artist talk at 5:00. The Picture Gallery is located at 139 Saint-Gaudens Road in Cornish, NH.

The publication for this exhibition: 2017 Nancy Azara