The Nature of Being, 2025
Catalog for Nancy Genn: The Nature of Being at Sonoma Valley Museum of Art, Sonoma, CA, 2025.
Contains the essays Nancy Genn: The Nature of Being by Linda Keaton, Executive Director & Chief Curator, Sonoma Valley Museum of Art; Lyrical and Vigorous: The Art of Nancy Genn by Scott A. Shields, Chief Curator & Associate Director, Crocker Art Museum; and Nancy Genn: A Spirited Nature by Jan Wurm, Artist & former Director of Exhibitions, Richmond Art Center.
“Genn does not create pictures that depict her subjects in a literal manner. She states, ‘Atmosphere and a sense of place emerges in the paintings… It incorporates memories and unique forms: light, architecture that I saw in my travels.’ Shimmering, translucent colors layer one upon another, suggesting the qualities of the sky and the water.
“Memories of rows of apricot trees in Santa Clara, waterfalls and glaciers in Patagonia, the ever-changing fog of San Francisco, and the gold sunlight of Rome each find their way into Genn's art. Deeply felt experiences and memories are manifested in visual forms, with Genn's signature quiet, subtle intensity. The viewer can sense her curious wonderment and excitement in each piece.”
– From Nancy Genn: The Nature of Being by Linda Keaton, 2025
“Genn's art is also decidedly Californian and indicative of her training at the California School of Fine Arts and University of California, Berkeley. Genn attended these schools when Abstract Expressionism was THE style promoted and practiced at both institutions, almost to the exclusion of anything else. Though she was one among many to pursue an Abstract Expressionist approach, her own linear and calligraphic contributions brought something distinct—and formidable—to the Bay Area. Her markmaking is, in fact, more suggestive of painters Mark Tobey in Seattle or Jackson Pollock in New York than any of her local peers.”
– From Art; Lyrical and Vigorous by Scott A. Shields, 2025
“Looking at art that spans decades, patterns emerge that can inform our understanding of the artist's evolutionary process at any given point of development. Within the lifetime of a studio practice that encompasses painting, papermaking, printmaking, and sculpture, Nancy Genn weaves an intricate tapestry that is echoed in her social relationships: family and friends, colleagues and community.
“Genn's deep family roots mirror her intrinsic sense of self as an artist and a way of being in the world. The intimacy of friendship, as with her decades-long closeness to artist Sonya Rapoport, has nourished and supported their parallel paths through years laced with daily telephone calls. In the solidarity of the studio, the artist is mining a singular vein; but this solidarity is fed by the knowledge of shared struggle.
“And then interwoven are the collegial Friday mornings with the Breakfast Group, a gathering of artists who bring their catalogues to the table of coffee and eggs and are certain to show up at each other's exhibition openings to warm the room with a familiar knowing and encouragement.”
– From Nancy Genn: A Spirited Nature by Jan Wurm, 2025