BIO

-Artist Information
Born in Chicago, Ill., but was transplanted to Arizona as a young child. Nancy Ngo grew up learning an appreciation for contrasting landscapes. She developed an eye for the difference in the way light reflects on different terrains in the country. She was fascinated with light and color and started to experiment with painting and photography in high school. Nancy returned to Chicago after high school and became immersed in the diverse art and culture of the city.Ngo received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis on Painting and Art History from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

She has been cultivating a personal body of work since graduating from the School in 2001, drawing inspiration from a rich variety of intellectual and aesthetic sources. Currently, she resides again in Arizona with her culinary artist husband and their three daughters.

-About her Work
Nancy's awareness of the play of light and shadow and its effect on color plays an important role in her work today.  The dichotomy of the natural desert landscape of Arizona versus the urban downtown environment of Chicago led her to a certain "no rules"style of painting.  Currently her paintings are highly textured, raw, and sometimes unfinished quality in which the work holds a kind of potential energy and freedom.  She often creates problems on the canvas, then, through her painting solves them. With every painting, there are an infinite number of approaches and decisions to be made.

This interconnectedness bundle together in Nancy’s unique artistic identity, an aesthetic that she nourishes with an intensely concentrated studio practice and an obsessive collection of resource materials. The latter includes original photographs and magazine clippings and texture making tools that Nancy takes and studies.

“In my painting, I have chosen to create works that infuse the language of abstraction with my own personal everyday experiences. I try not to tie myself down to one way of creating. In the day to day, I work with painting, natural fibers, printmaking, collage pieces and other multimedia.“

Nancy has created a world all her own from fragments of the world around her. Ngo continues to explore new avenues in her work, even with new materials. She is fascinated by the discoveries made while creating each new piece of art, and allows her style to change often in order to keep her painterly freedom.