Presented by Claggett/Rey Gallery 216 Main Street Suite C-100 Edwards CO 81632 970 476 9350 claggettrey.com
NANCY SWITZER
From Denver, Colorado, Nancy Switzer paints still lifes of simple, everyday objects such as milk cartons, water glasses, cans, and more. She is known for her textural, heavy application of paint. An eye for complexity in simple subjects is key to Switzer’s work, saying of cans “A can is a simple shape. It reflects everything around it, takes form and is defined by reflecting what it is not. The can is only visible because of what it reflects. Looking at a can for a time, one begins to see what is-not-there.”
As a child Switzer was encouraged by her mother, an amateur artist. The family was musical, and she and her siblings performed as a quintet and took music lessons in Houston, where they traveled from their home in Freeport. At age 15, she played violin with the Norfolk Symphony in Virginia, and in her 20s, played violin with the Oslo, Norway, Philharmonic.
She attended the North Carolina School of the Arts as a music student and later changed to art studies at Virginia Commonwealth University. She received her Bachelor’s Degree from the Rhode Island School of Design and returned to art after finishing her formal education. She is inspired by the painting of Joaquin Sorolla as well as George Bellows.
“Portrait of a Sleeping Milkfish”
Nancy Switzer
63½"×33½" Oil | $36,000
“Tandem Tall Stack” Nancy Switzer 48"×24" Oil | $22,000
“Scad Plate” Nancy Switzer 10"×10" Oil | $2,900
“Water Round v_2” Nancy Switzer 12"×24" Oil | $6,500
Design and shape, color and nuance. I’m guided by these principal elements when I paint. The use of particular subject matter over and over again is something that happens in service to this basic focus, which is merely a painter’s way of seeing the world.
As anyone who has followed my work will know, my first fascination with cans and fish has never left. In fact, with the repetition of the familiarity of can in particular, I am discovering how to put my visual pursuits in paint.
A can is a simple shape. It reflects everything around it, takes form and its defined by reflecting what it is not. The can is only visible because of what it reflects. Looking at a can for a time, one begins to see what is-not-there. I have studied cans in all sorts of arrangements—rows, small stacks. As I studied, the numbers of cans grew. Then grew some more. The reflecting effects, that endless variation and investigations kept dogging me.
In the end, I had to build a can wall. The wall is five feet high and wide. Standing in front of it—looking and seeing is a dizzying experience. Saying there long enough to understand it is a meditative one…
— Nancy Switzer
“Long Orange Rise” Nancy Switzer 60"×120" Oil | $58,000
“Water Round v_3” Nancy Switzer 12"×24" Oil | $6,500
Nancy
30"×60" Oil | $24,000
“Down Row”
Switzer
“Two Shots Four Ways” Nancy Switzer 10"×10" Each Oil | $11,200
“Mackerel Plate Tilt” Nancy Switzer 12"×12" Oil | $3.400
“Four Bags Reflecting” Nancy Switzer 16"×20" Oil | $7,200
