Reverie in Color and Shape
DeCordova Lending Artist Nancy Simonds celebrates the opening of her solo exhibition, Reverie in Color and Shape, at the Cambridge Arts Council/ CAG Gallery TONIGHT, 6-8pm, 344 Broadway, Cambridge MA.
According to the website, "In 2011, the City of Cambridge needed to improve the appearance of a first floor façade of the First Street Parking Facility in East Cambridge, at the corner of Spring and First Streets. The wallswere in good condition, but there were a dozen large windows that had been damaged by fire and boarded up or darkened. Nancy Simonds, a local artist, was commissioned to create a temporary artwork that would address all of these window frames in one concept, taking in both sides of the corner. The City wanted the artwork to be effective from the points of view of drivers and riders who would see it at a distance, as well as for pedestrians on the sidewalk.
Until that time, Nancy’s primary materials were gouache on paper. Many of her paintings were large in scale, but she had never done a work for an exterior application or composed a painting on the scale of the Parking Facility façade. Rising to the challenge, Nancy created Beacon of Color, an eleven-panel installation, using acrylic paint on a durable board suitable for outdoor urban conditions. Beacon of Color brings rhythm, color, and shape to 5,000 square feet of surface, sweeping the corner of the building. At the time, she explained, “I want to bring vitality, exuberance, energy, and order to what is otherwise a dreary area. These images are anti-chaos…I strive through marvelous, dynamic, and resolved color relationships to make a visual place for contemplation and calm.” Here in the CAC Gallery, Nancy is exhibiting studio work that offers an opportunity to see how Beacon of Color developed out of her work in gouache on paper, and how her subsequent practice has been influenced by Beacon of Color, a public art project that took her into unfamiliar territory in material, scale, and site. For more information please visit http://nancysimonds.com/."
Congratulations, Nancy!