NANCY IVERS

Nancy Ivers is a New York-based painter and sculptor. Her work balances on the edge of figurative, drawing out the essence of her subjects to present a visual representation of spiritual and mystical themes. 

Ivers’s art finds its genesis in a deep commitment to the meaning of humanity, the sacredness of the human encounter, and the power of energy to heal. As human beings, we are body, mind, and spirit, all in relationship with each other and with all living things. Ivers’s work reflects her continued exploration of this relationship. Her paintings and sculpture create a place that takes the viewer beyond the physical reality that holds and grounds us. While that physical reality is essential for daily life, it can inhibit the dreams that help us take steps of transformation as we move toward higher possibilities and our natural given potential to transform, repair, and refine ourselves and our environment. For Ivers, that struggle at the interface of where we are and where our spirit wants to be, our efforts to transcend to a higher plain, fuel the energy of our creative essence and explorations.

A strong consciousness permeates Ivers’s paintings, enveloping the viewer in a ritual of self-discovery, awareness, reception, and interpretation. Like the large-scale color field canvases of Mark Rothko, Ivers’s paintings succeed when, in viewing the work, one achieves a meditative state.

Thomas W. Lollar, internationally renowned ceramist and professor of fine arts at Columbia University, describes Ivers’s creative spirit as evocative of the dynamism that was central to the early 20th Century Futurists: “The application of paint thrusting forth in dynamic strokes of color is complementary to [Ivers’s] approach to the skillful manipulation of clay into forms of spontaneous movements… I feel a sense of vibrating movement as windswept, multicolor abstract forms flicker across the canvas. Interestingly, Ivers achieves the same visual dynamism in the monochrome porcelain sculpture where texture replaces color. What appears as being spontaneous is carefully and skillfully designed to make color and texture dance."

Ivers’s art training began at a young age. She studied under Jane Leach in Pennsylvania as a teenager, and continued her studies at Pennsylvania State University, where she minored in Fine Arts and Clay Work. She received additional training at the Art Students League of New York, Columbia University, the Haystack Mountain School in Maine, and the National Academy School of Fine Arts in New York. She learned bronze work process under the guidance of esteemed American sculptor Greg Wyatt. Ivers also holds a PhD in psychology and her work resonates with themes at the intersection of art, psychology, and mysticism.

Prior to exhibiting with Leonard Tourné Gallery, Ivers’s work appeared in multiple solo and group exhibitions, including the Elaine Benson Gallery, Whitehall Gallery, Mark Murray Fine Art, Pen + Brush Gallery, Tribeca Art Gallery, Fundt Gallery, Penthouse Gallery, and the Macy Gallery at Columbia University. Her work is represented in public and private collections in Brazil, Israel, the Netherlands, South Africa, and the United States.