NANCY CROW: SEQUENCES, RIFFS, AND DRAWINGS

A solo exhibition of artwork by Nancy Crow has recently opened at the Schweinfurth Art Center in Auburn, New York. Nancy Crow: Sequences, Riffs, and Drawings will run through 20 August 2023, showing pieces that represent the three directions that Crow has taken in her art making process. “Because of the way my personality was formed from the time I was a child, I have a hard time staying focused,” she said during a Zoom interview with Schweinfurth Program Director Davana Robedee. “Therefore, I will start in one direction on my work and get bored, and then I’m off to another direction.


Image: Clickety-Clack: Riff #3B, by Nancy Crow, 2023. Image above: detail from Seeking Energy,” by Nancy Crow, 2019.

“But finally, over all these years, I have now put together enough work in each sort of direction that I thought it is all starting to come together, it’s all starting to make sense,” she continued, adding that she hopes to show all three directions in her exhibit.


Image: Drawing: Riff #6, by Nancy Crow, 2018.

“Nancy Crow is one of the most influential quilters of her generation, and she shows no signs of slowing down at 80,” said Schweinfurth Executive Director Donna Lamb. “She is a master of design and composition, and colour. This exhibit is a great opportunity to see her recent work and to understand her creative process.”

Image: Drawing: Riff #12, by Nancy Crow, 2020.

Artist statement:
As I reflect on the group of works included in my exhibition, I realise they represent a range of emotions and thoughts that are articulated in the language of geometric elements emphasising great figure/ground tension. For me, great figure/ground tension equals beauty. Beauty is life-giving. I need beauty. Haydn’s “Trumpet Concerto in E-flat Major” is beyond thrilling to the soul, life-giving and it is about beauty. I want to create works only about beauty.


Image: Seeking Calmness, by Nancy Crow, 2019.

But many artists struggle and I too struggle…mainly with anxiety and doubts. By nature, artists are very connected to their emotions so the politics, the chaotic disruptions in lives all over the world, the war in Ukraine, the wars in many African and middle eastern countries, the hatred spewed towards others who don’t fill some mould of acceptance is disorienting and disheartening, destabilising, and discouraging. During the coronavirus I could make no work. When I started again, I felt anxious and found that sequences were all that I could make and sequences were the only thing that helped subdue the heightened anxiety I felt and tried to quell, never totally. I do not want to make work that reflects the cruelty in life and the world today. I only want to create works about beauty.

SEQUENCES: Making repetitions calms me and this process is necessary to who I am.

RIFFS: Taking an idea and allowing it to become variations on a theme.

DRAWINGS: Actually, I believe all of my work is a form of drawing because I do cut into fabric thinking that I am actually drawing.

See an interview with Nancy Crow and Schweinfurth Program Director Davana Robedee. WATCH HERE.

Nancy Crow: Sequences, Riffs, and Drawings will be on show at the Schweinfurth Art Center until 20 August 2023. Find out here: schweinfurthartcenter.org/nancy-crow-sequences-riffs-and-drawings/