In the mid-1980s, Graves attached protruding aluminum elements to her canvases—forms that resemble line drawings or extensions of her own brushstrokes—creating hybrid works that blur the boundary between painting and sculpture. These wall-mounted anodized aluminum project shadows across the canvas and surrounding exhibition space, emphasizing the interplay between material and form that defines Graves’s distinct visual language. On the canvases she applied gold and silver leaf to further integrate the metallic sheen of sculptures with the painted surfaces beneath them.
In this burst of color and materiality, Graves continued developing her rich referential language. At the center of the composition is a carp fish, based on a Japanese print, defined through negative space and patterned forms. an example of Graves’s enduring fascination with visual sources from world cultures. Also referenced is a motif from a Japanese kimono featuring peaches and waves, likely inspired by a museum exhibition Graves saw in New York. Her broad and varied interests often extended well beyond the realm of traditional art, leading her to explore other systems of knowledge and visual culture. By combining unconventional materials with a sharp formal sensibility, Graves’s practice consistently defied categorization—bridging time, cultures, and disciplines, while remaining distinctly her own.
- Knoedler Gallery, Ltd., London, United Kingdom, Nancy Graves 4/8/1987.
- Meredith Long & Company, Houston, TX, Energy Fields Transfixed: Recent Works by Nancy Graves 4/11/1991.
- Locks Gallery, Philadelphia, PA, Nancy Graves, Permanent Tension: Painting and Sculpture 2/27/2009.
- David Richard Gallery, Santa Fe, After Image 10/11/2017 - 11/11/2017
- Energy Fields Transfixed: Recent Works by Nancy Graves, Meredith Long & Company, Houston, TX, 1991, illus.
- Ratcliff, Carter, The Naturalist, Art & Antiques, Art & Antiques World Wide Media, LLC, New York, NY 2017, p. 71, illus.