Date: Fri 23-Feb-1996

Publication: Bee

Author: SHANNO

Illustration: C

Location: A-11

Quick Words:

Nancy-Richter-artist-paper

Full Text:

(feature on Newtown artist Nancy Richter)

She Moves North, & Nancy Richter's Work Goes To NYC

(with photos)

By Shannon Hicks

Along with her husband and son, Nancy Richter moved from Miami to Newtown last

year in order to be closer to family and friends, but also to be closer to the

New York art scene.

Ironically, Nancy - a full-time artist - who wanted to be closer to the art

scene that influences her life, moved here knowing she was about to present

her first solo show right in the middle of that same scene: Through March 2,

Gallery B.A.I. in Manhattan is presenting a one-woman show of Nancy's painted

paper constructions.

Using large rolls of watercolor paper, Nancy Richter cuts out designs, then

uses acrylic paints and constructs the pieces to resemble cross-cut tree

trunks. The pieces are extraordinarily realistic to view, yet deceptively

lightweight. The largest constructions Nancy creates are sometimes as tall as

the petite artist herself, yet weigh mere ounces.

"If you have to categorize whether this is painting or sculpture, you're in

kind of a tough position sometimes," Nancy says with a sweep of her arm to

indicate the works she has surrounded herself with in the one-room studio she

maintains in Monroe.

The constructions' flat painted surfaces identify them as paintings. However,

their contours and methods of construction are sculptural. Though hollow, they

appear to be solid, and are painted with layers and glazes of paint.

Nancy's works hang on walls in grouped installations - "Things Thrown

Forward," a 25-piece installation, measures 28 feet in length when assembled -

and individual works. Inspired by and resembling cross-sections of trees and

logs, the constructions, the artist says, "evoke the body, mandalas and other

imagery," as well as art historical influences.

Dressed in black from head to toe (except for a thin-banded Minnie Mouse watch

on her wrist), Nancy walks around her Monroe studio talking about her work.

She and her husband, Keith, live in Newtown with their son Zachary, who

attends kindergarten at Middle Gate School. It is somewhat ironic the slender

artist has chosen to focus on constructions of something so strong and

powerful as trees: Nancy looks as if a strong breeze could blow her over, yet

the constructions she creates look as strong as the mightiest oaks and maples.

The painted paper constructions are the result of nine years of developing a

process of painting and making three-dimensional constructions out of paper.

Earlier pieces were abstract, often geometric; some described by the artist as

minimal, others as primitive looking.

"I started working with paper, three-dimensionally, about nine years ago. I

did abstract works at first, then became more referential as I went along,"

Nancy says.

In 1992, while living in Miami during the devastation of Hurricane Andrew's

aftermath, many trees and limbs were cut down. The sight of these exposed

cross-sections became a preoccupation for Nancy. Now that she is living in New

England and burning wood for heat, cut wood is a readily visual presence.

"I don't want these to be taken quite so literally - they begin to have

various eyes and faces, and various things... you could free associate. People

do have associations," she continues.

Nancy is a contemporary artist, there is no doubt about that. She can't name

influences, but laughs when she pulls out a review of a show she had in

Florida where the show curator compared her work to that of the Dada period.

"`...influences include aspects of Expressionism, Surrealism, Dada and New

Image painting,'" she reads from the show description, which she keeps in her

portfolio. "Now, I didn't know what New Image painting was, but once I found

out what it was, I thought `Well, I can see how a curator, an art historian,

would see it that way.'

"If you pay attention to contemporary art, you do get influenced by it."

While her background includes education in art history courses and visual

arts, Nancy stresses she is not, in any way, intending to be a traditional

artist. To her, being a contemporary artist means not attempting to do work

that could have been done 75 to 100 years ago. There won't be any rectangular

paintings, nor any pedestal sculpture created in Nancy's studio.

Until November, Nancy worked in the garage that adjoins the home she and Keith

bought last year in Newtown. Once winter set in, it became too cold to work in

the garage/studio she had set up; finding a more permanent - and heated -

studio quickly became a priority.

Working in a studio at home was not the norm. Before she moved to Newtown,

Nancy had a studio away from home, where she could get away to work for

several hours at a clip. Keith and Zachary have both been to Nancy's studio,

of course, but it isn't a place to go and "hang out" with Mom. It is, after

all, her work space.

"They've been here," Nancy says, but adds Zachary doesn't spend a lot of time

watching his mother work. It doesn't hold his interest. "It's like anyone else

bringing their child to work... you can only expect so much."

Nancy and Keith first looked in Newtown for a studio space, but with

industrial spaces with good lighting a rarity in this town, the Richters had

to widen their scope. Which led to finding the second-story studio space on

Route 25 in Monroe.

Nancy knew by last spring when she would have her debut in a New York City

gallery. In March, 1995, a friend showed her work to Sohyun Bai, owner of

Gallery B.A.I. in Manhattan, who was interested in meeting Nancy and

presenting her work to the public.

"I've always been able to paint and draw," Nancy says. She says this

matter-of-factly, not with the conceit attributed to many artists, who need to

spend so much time self-promoting their work it sometimes carries over into

their persona. "Some people, it just comes very easily to."

Although she has taken formal education - Nancy received a bachelor's degree

in visual arts from Florida State University - Nancy says anyone can learn the

basics. It's what you do with your own talent that makes the difference

between an educated artist and a natural talent.

One of the reasons Nancy and her family moved to Connecticut was a desire to

have more exposure to art - "ancient things, old things," she says - in the

New York area. Keith and Nancy both have family in Fairfield County, and they

found and liked Newtown while they were in the "looking around" stage of

moving north.

Nancy is happy with the move. "The schools are great. Newtown is a wonderful

place to raise children," she enthused. And of course, she's close to the

city, which is what she had wanted.

"It's nice to get on the train and be [in New York City] in two hours," Nancy

says, "not counting the drive to the train station."

And for a few more weeks, when Nancy gets on the train - with or without the

rest of her family - and the train pulls into the city, she can visit art that

not only influences her, but in one gallery in particular, is by her.