Nancy Manter

Nancy Manter was born and raised in the State of Maine and has been living and working for several years between New York City and Bass Harbor, Maine. She is a painter whose work is based on the elements of weather, the environment and landscape.

Manter has shown widely in New York, as well as throughout the United States, Europe and South America. Selected recent solo exhibitions include "Then, Now..." at 315 Galley@ Dieu Donne Papermill, New York City, "Regeneration" Mount Desert Biological Laboratory, Maine; "Water Prayers" Kentler International Drawing Center“ Brooklyn, NY; "Road Art; Landscapes of the Twenty-first Century” Princeton University Atelier, founded and directed by author Toni Morrison; “Weatherly” Snug Harbor Newhouse Gallery, New York and funded by the Verazano Foundation; “Road Work” DM Contemporary Gallery, New York; “Desire Lines” Waterfall Arts Center in Belfast Maine; “Huellas” College of the Atlantic, Maine and at SUNY-Columbia Greene College in Hudson, New York. She has also exhibited at the Boston Center for the Art, Islip Museum; Metaphor Gallery, Brattleboro Museum & Art Center, Sideshow Gallery, Dieu Donne Papermill Gallery, Heckscher Museum, Lesley Heller Workspace, and the Central Park Arsenal Gallery all in New York, among others. Dieu Donne Press recently published a limited edition handmade book titled “Water Prayers” featuring Stuart Kestenbaum’s poems and Manter’s imagery.

Manter’s work is included in several collections including the Whitney Museum of Art, The Guggenheim Museum, The Modern Museum of Art, The National Museum of Art, Washington D.C. among others. She is a recipient of the Verrazano Foundation Grant, A David Garner Project Fund-Princeton University, two New York Foundation for the Arts Grants and was both a nominee for the Tiffany Foundation and The Smithsonian Arts Fellowship and Anonymous was a Women Grant (TBA). Manter has received fellowships from McDowell Colony where she received the Chubb LifeAmerica Fellow Award, Ucross, Fundacion Valparaiso, Spain, Virginia Center for Creative Arts, The Heliker-LaHotan Foundation and the Fairfield Porter Art Week in Maine.

Statement:

Having grown up in Maine, where weather and the extreme variations in geology were all consuming, I use these powerful images as metaphors for the human experience in a precarious world. I am interested in making paintings that address these physical processes and physical properties of the earth. Radically changing atmosphere, tides and geological surfaces-—both above and below the waterline— wind circulation, plate tectonics and Landsat images influence my paintings. The geological terms "dip-slip faults” and “chatter marks” resonate in my work. My paintings juxtapose, for instance, the calmness of flat dawn light on the water with the maelstrom of a snow and sleet windstorm. Rocks in and against the water and skyline, always shifting, are fiercely beautiful and sometimes awkward and humorous in shape and form.

My paintings consist of several layers of Flashe Paint and charcoal built up into a surface that resonates time and space for me. Recently I have been exploring color to suggest a kind of chemical activity-yellows, violets and an acidic greens found in various polluted waterways. It reflects my deep sense of foreboding, anticipation, and curiosity in nature as it exists today.

EDUCATION

1976 B.F.A., Portland School of Art, Portland, ME
1956-57 National Academy of Art, New York City, NY
1955-56 Art Students League, New York City, NY
1955 B.A., Vassar College, Poughkeepsie, NY

SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS

2018 “Walk BY” 110 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2015 “Weather; Above and Below Ground” Herman Fine Art Center, Marietta College, OH
“Then and Now…” Jack Barret Gallery @ Dieu Donne Papermill, New York, NY
2013 “Water Prayers” Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY
“Regeneration; A Collaboration with Dr Voot Yin” MDI Biological Center, ME
2012 “Weatherproof” Barnes Franklin Gallery, Tunis, CT
2010 “Huellas; Past and Future” College of the Atlantic, Blum Gallery, ME
2009 “Desire Lines” Waterfall Arts Center, Belfast, ME
“Paintings Columbia Art Center, SUNY Columbia-Greene, New York, NY
2008 “Weather/Imagination” Snug Harbor Art Center, New York, NY
2006 “Road Work” DM Contemporary, New York, NY
“Road Art/ New Work” Frist Center, Princeton University, New Jersey
2002 “Traces” Saint Peter’s Cathedral, Citicorp Building, New York, NY
2000 “New Paintings” Heckscher Museum, New York, NY

SELECTED COLLECTIONS

Guggenheim Museum
Brooklyn Museum
Whitney Museum
Metropolitan Museum of Art
National Museum of Art, Washington, D.C.
Boston Public Library
Fogg Art Museum
New Jersey Art Museum
Elvehjem Museum, Wisconsin
Portland Art Museum, Maine
Museum of Fine arts, Boston
Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, Texas

SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS

2021 “GROUNDINGS; American Contemporary Women Abstract Artists pared With Historical Women Artists” Curated by Jason Andrews, American Abstract Artists Online show.
“Drawing Challenge XVI and XX” Jason McCoy Gallery Online show.
“Marks and Tracks” L.C. Bates Museum, ME
“Tactile” Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, Curated by John Back, New York, NY
“Here and There” Cove Street Arts, Curated by David Row, Portland, ME
“Blurring Boundaries; Women of the American Abstract Artists 1936-Present” Curated by Rebecca DiGiovanna, Baker Museum, FL (Catalogue)
2019 “American Abstract Artist Print Portfolio” Transmitter Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
“Blurring Boundaries; Women of the American Abstract Artists 1936-Present” South Bend Art Museum, Indiana, Ewing Gallery, University Tennessee (Travel-Catalogue)
2018 “Wide Skies; Ucross@35” Lincoln Center Jazz, New York NY
2017 “Cross Pollination” 516 Arts, Albuquerque, NM
2016 “Visible Histories” Morris-Warren Gallery, Curated by Max Weintraub, New York, NY (Brochure)
“Onward American Abstract Art” 1285 Seventh Avenue Gallery-UBS, Curated by Karen Wilkins, New York, NY (Catalogue)
“Chromatic Scale” Shirley Fiterman Art Center, New York, NY (Brochure)
2015 “Celebrating Photography, Selections from the Bruce Brown Collection” University of Maine Museum of Art, ME
”American Abstract Artists” Missoula Art Museum, MT
“The Circle” Five Myles Gallery Curated by Rachel Nackman, Brooklyn, NY
2014 “Beneath the Surface” PhoPa Gallery, Portland, ME
“Sensory Impact” Morgan Stanley Global, Purchase, NY
“American Abstract Artists” Sideshow Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
2013 “Dynamic Intervention” Brattleboro Museum, VT
“Seeing Through” 490 Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
“Seeing Through; Drawings” Soapbox Gallery, Brooklyn, NY
“Portal” Waterfall Arts center, Belfast, ME
“Art/Collect” Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME
2012 AbstractCONCRET” Paris, France
“Artists Books From Dieu Donne Collection” Grolier Club, Curated by Susan Gosin, New York, NY
2011 “A Survey of Photography” University of Maine Museum of Art, ME
“75th Anniversary American Abstract Artists” OK Harris Gallery, New York, NY
“Selections” DM Contemporary, New York, NY
2010 “The Arboreal; Four Artists” Central Park Arsenal Gallery, New York, NY
“American Abstract Artists; 60 year Anniversary” Museum of Castle Otranto, Italy and The Deutch Kunsterbund Gallery, Berlin, Germany (Travel)
“American Abstract Artist; Paper” Crane Arts Project, Philadelphia, PA
“Ten Years Later” Curated by Bruce Brown, Center for Maine Contemporary Art, Rockland, ME
“Artists Work” University of Wisconsin-Madison, WI
“Degrees of Density” Curated by Marilyn Symmes, Arkansas Art Center and Corn Center for Visual Arts, Georgia (Brochure)