Artist Spotlight: Nancy Friedemann-Sanchez
Cornucopia, 2016, Ink on Tyvek. 108" x 225"
Delicate, intricate line work weaves over velvety black surfaces that tower over the viewer. Her work, while aesthetically magnificent, is also deeply personal, where her bicultural history and intellectual rigor collide. The Colombian born artist was raised by her mother, who was a cultural anthropologist. She had the opportunity to grow up and see every side of her native country, from the wealthiest to the poorest regions. This class stratification informs her work, along with her close ties to US culture and education.
When Friedemann-Sánchez moved from Bogotá to Los Angeles to continue studying fine art, she became immediately inspired by the pervading 80s feminist movement and sought to incorporate these ideas into her work, intertwining ideas around patriarchal colonialism with groundbreaking feminist thought.
Mestiza, 2016. India Ink on Tyvek, Indigenous Mask and Spanish Comb 45" x 67.5"
Every choice Friedemann makes carries cultural and historical weight that elevates these pieces from aesthetically pleasing to politically challenging. The flowers she works with are symbolically resonant: Floral arrangements were commonly painted by Spanish colonists, and they continue to influence Colombia’s economy through its ties to the floral industry. The artist is an inherent storyteller, and she’s currently working on a mixed media visual novel. She’s never been known to box herself in to one medium, rather, she explores complex ideas through ink, paint, crochet, sculpture, and found object.
India Gentil-from the Casta Paintings, 2017. Tyvek mopa mopa, readymade 80" x 40"
Read Nancy’s bio from her website below:
In her work Nancy Friedemann deliberately manages an economy of materials. Her large scale drawings alude to Minimalism and the Pattern and Decoration Movement but explicitly explore the experience of identity, memory and gender. Nancy Friedemann has a masters degree from New York University; a BFA from Otis Art Institute and undergraduate studies from La Universidad de Los Andes, Bogotá, Colombia. Friedemann has been awarded a Smithsonian Artist Fellowship; a Pufffin Foundation grant; a Pollock Krasner grant; a National Association of Latino Arts and Culture grant . She has also been nominated to the Rema Hort Mann and to the Anonymous was a Woman Foundation. She has been a resident at Art OMI, New York; Fountainhead, Miami; Tamarind Institute, New Mexico; Yaddo, New York; Gasworks, Triangle Arts Trust, London; Bemis Center for Contemporary arts, Nebraska; Bronx Museum for the Arts, New York and Taller Arte Dos Gráfico, Bogotá. Her work is representative of contemporary feminist expressions and was selected for the Feminist Art Base at the Brooklyn Museum in New York. Friedemann is also a member of the Artist Pension Trust, Mexico City since 2009.
Nancy’s work will be on view in the Heiter Gallery from June 6 - September 8 at the Schneider Museum of Art in Ashland, Oregon. For more information, visit sma.sou.edu.