‘Infinite Ocean and Sky’ by Nancy Baker

Nancy Baker searches her inspiration in ocean and sky, and her installations seem to be floating in the space, just like clouds in the sky

Under the patronage of His Highness Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah, the Cultural Affairs Department at the Sharjah Department of Culture has organised the 22nd edition of the Sharjah Islamic Arts Festival, which will run until January 21, 2020.

The Sharjah Art Museum hosts 31 exhibitions by Emirati, Arab and international artists. This edition includes 241 artworks by 108 artists from 31 countries, from the United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and neighbouring Arab countries, as well as Columbia, Italy, the United Kingdom, Belarus, Australia, and Argentina. At the Sharjah Art Museum, the exhibition 'Infinite Ocean and Sky' by Nancy Baker was inaugurated by HH Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah.

Nancy Baker presents her artworks to HH Sheikh Dr. Sultan Bin Mohammed Al Qasimi, member of the Supreme Council and Ruler of Sharjah / Photo Courtesy of Sharjah Department of Culture

Nancy Baker finds her solace in the geometry of fundamentals. She focuses on the ephemeral nature of paper and the ease of its transportability, which allows her to create large scale constructions. Her large installations are multilayered, and can significantly project outwards. She uses special mounting custom made brackets that visually disappear, and all one can see are floating paper compositions. Baker searches he inspiration in ocean and sky, and her installations seem to be floating in the space. She also includes words and phrases but seeks to partly obscure the written content, by painting and slicing into the letters, integrating them into the overall structure of the piece. The paper artworks combine digitally printed, hand and laser-cut geometric shapes that are painted, sprayed, scraped and gouged. She uses glitter, paint, modelling paste, gold leaf, printed commercial matter, and recycled paper pulp forms.

Nancy Baker / Photo Â© Islamic Arts Magazine

'Infinite Ocean and Sky' by Nancy Baker, installation view / Photo Â© Islamic Arts Magazine

'Infinite Ocean and Sky' by Nancy Baker / Photo Â© Islamic Arts Magazine

Nancy Baker earned her BFA from the School of Visual Arts, New York. Her work has been widely exhibited throughout the USA, including ODETTA Gallery (Brooklyn), Front Room Gallery (Brooklyn), Mark Moore Gallery, Winkleman Gallery, Schema Projects (Brooklyn), Marcia Wood Gallery (Atlanta), Greenhill Center (Greensboro), Jancar Gallery (Los Angeles), NC Museum of Art (Raleigh), 1708 Gallery (Richmond), Heriard Cimino Gallery (NOLA), and Lump Gallery (Raleigh). She has received numerous awards, including two North Carolina Artists Fellowships, a Tennessee Individual Artist Fellowship, and an NEA Southern Arts Fellowship. She was awarded a commission with MTA Arts and Design for two train stations in Brooklyn, which was fabricated in stainless steel. Last year she was commissioned to create a new work for Karen Brooks Hopkins, the Director of Brooklyn Academy of Music.

Her work is included in numerous public and private collections including the International Collage Center, Bucknell, PA; US Embassy, Kyiv, Ukraine; Wellington Art Collection, Boston; City of Raleigh Municipal Art Collection, Raleigh, NC; North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh NC; MCI Corporation, Raleigh NC; Reynolds Industries, Winston-Salem, NC; Herman Miller, New York, NY; Bellevue Hospital Center, New York, NY; TRW, Cleveland, OH; American Hospital Corporation, Nashville, TN; First Nation Bank, Nashville, TN, among others.