Duane Reed Gallery | 4/24-5/29 | St. Louis, MO

Defying Time

Delight in the geometric, time warping new works by Nancy Newman Rice.

The COVID crisis has marked a time of great turmoil and upheaval, and artists such as Nancy Newman Rice were no exception to the mental affects of quarantining and bouts of isolation. In a show of new works at Duane Reed Gallery, Rice explores concepts of time in her abstracted geometric oil paintings inspired by and a result of her time in quarantine.

“I had an exhibit in New York City at the outset of the COVID crisis and was exposed to many people, but it is not clear whether or not I had a mild case, so I self-quarantined,” Rice explains. “Because every day was the same, I was in my studio for at least eight hours painting with an obsessive intensity.”Covid Isolation I, oil on canvas on Sintra, 32 x 32"

Rice’s show paintings Covid Isolation I, II and III were her first paintings created during her quarantine, and are primarily “self-contained geometric depictions of shallow space in dark colors.” She elaborates that they “present a sense of stasis and control as they are tightly composed and non-referential.” As time passed, her compositions began to break into brightly colored geometric shapes moving through an infinite space. “In retrospect,” she states, “this transition might have mirrored my impatience with undefined time.”Covid Isolation II, oil on Gatorboard, 32 x 32"

Even before the pandemic, Rice’s work has been based on geometric organization of space, however the new work has become more abstract over time. “The sense of space and movement is there,” Rice furthers, “but specifically defined spaces are either suggested or absent. The newer work is derived from a series that featured the interior of buildings defined by complex scaffolding and layers of remembered views.”

“Regardless of the series she is working on,” says gallery owner Duane Reed, “the overlaying principle that I see repeated again and again is her particular ability to transport the viewer into a three-dimensional space. In this exhibition, the play of line, depth, color and light magically traps you within each piece like a meditative pinball machine, making it difficult to leisurely view the work without exploring each layer the painting reveals. You find yourself in a continuous path of delightful complexity through paint strokes and composition; activating the mind and senses almost in a hypnotic manner.”Covid Isolation III, City of Reflection, oil on canvas on Sintra, 32 x 32"

Rice begins her process, working from photo references and memory, by using copious amounts of drawing on vellum that are layered to create the final drawing. She then works with the utmost precision, with great attention to detail and color, using a very small paintbrush. The paintings can take anywhere from two weeks to three months to complete.

The style that Rice employs is greatly inspired by Portuguese artist Maria Helena Vieira da Silva (1908-1992). “Her invented spatial environments have influenced my work, as my paintings also define imagined places,” Rice says. “In my paintings, the layering of shapes or objects implies space, and these layers are the most important aspect of my work, they are meant to produce a sense of continuous spatial reconfiguration, structures that move sometimes imperceptibly as if by the passage of time or complex shapes moving rapidly and defying time.”Afterwards II, oil on canvas on Sintra, 40 x 40"