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Nancy Diamond’s work offers a glimpse into a subliminal macrocosm, negotiating a convergence of outer and interior worlds. Whether the inspiration is inanimate or sentient, Diamond’s subjects remain in a state of becoming, straddling the familiar and the alien. Her often-repeated themes have included resilience and the passage of time. Diamond’s creations are marked by an intensity of focus intertwined with a whimsicality of representation. Her hallucinatory visons are tethered to realism, lending to works that are not totally alien and based on her observations, yet susceptible to and reliant on her imagination and instinct.
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Butterflies and Moths, 2022oil on wood panel14 x 11 inches -
Sun and Flowerheads, 2022Watercolor and gouache on paper12 3/4 x 10 1/2 inches
Framed dimensions 16 3/4 x 14 inches -
Mountain Tulips, 2021Watercolor and gouache on paper11 x 14 inches
Framed dimensions 14 x 16 3/4 inchesSold
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Nancy Diamond, Pink Cloud Sunset, 2023
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Sun Dots, 2024Gouache and acrylic on wood13 x 13 inches
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Flemish Poppy, 2022Acrylic and oil on wood panel13 x 13 inches
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Diamond presents the natural world in a heightened state and combines her ongoing interests in optics and pattern with direct observation and invention. When painting, she concentrates her gaze skyward, observing light and deepening colors that cycle from sunrise to sunset. Diamond has built a significant body of work as she has explored what is possible with water media, after previously working primarily in oil. Conceptual exploration is merged with the effects of the paint itself, as pigment reacts with binder, paint with paper, and moisture with atmosphere, sun, and light. Nodding to the work of Arthur Dove, Georgia O’Keeffe, and Helen Frankenthaler, Diamond’s trees, clouds, and flowers are at once familiar and unfamiliar, and often have taken on a subtle anthropomorphism.
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Dark Middle, 2023Watercolor and gouache on paper11 x 14 inches
Framed dimensions 13 3/4 x 16 3/4 inches -
Core, 2022Watercolor and gouache on paper10 1/2 x 14 inches
Framed dimensions 14 x 16 3/4 inches -
Trees at Night, 2020Watercolor and gouache on paper20 x 16 inches
Framed dimensions 22 3/4 x 18 3/4 inches
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Red Tulip, 2022Acrylic and oil on wood panel13 x 13 inches
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Spring Moth, 2022Watercolor and gouache on paper14 x 11 inches
Framed dimensions 18 1/2 x 14 1/2 inches -
Nancy Diamond, Wild Pansy II, 2022
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Diamond’s exploratory works conjure scenes from the microscopic to the wide open. Though often precise in detail, they are filled with abstract and hallucinatory alterations. Single flowers are often represented not as a part of the landscape but as the dramatic subject of psychedelic portraiture in a state of serene solitude. Diamond gives her inanimate subjects a hyperfocus and dignity that captivates her viewer, drawing them into a realm where the familiar becomes extraordinary. Each petal, leaf and stem is forensically observed and celebrated, as Diamond invites the viewer to linger and explore the intricate details and vacillating abstraction of her creations. While the resonance between botanical and human forms brings an aspect of self-referentiality to the work, Diamond imbues her subjects with a sense of otherworldliness; under her eye, they transcend their earthly origins to become symbols of introspection and transcendence.
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Nancy Diamond was born and raised in New York City and earned a BFA from the Rhode Island School of Design with a double degree in painting and film. Her work has been shown in exhibitions both nationally and internationally. Grants and awards include the National Endowment for the Arts grant and the Marie Walsh Sharpe/Walenta Space Program residency. She had been a long-time resident of New York City but now lives full-time in a mountaintop meadow in upstate NY, where she is an intimate participant in the infinite changes that take place season-to-season, day-to-day, and second-to-second.
PETAL TONGUE: Nancy Diamond
Past viewing_room
