Nancy Friedmann-
sanchez

artist statement

I am working on chapters of a visual novel, comprised of different media that weave a synchronicity of dialogues about hybridity and cultural ownership. This work explores migration, the encounters between Europe and the Americas, and the continuing effects of colonization into the present. By researching historic, Colonial art practices, I aim to recuperate lost knowledge and create art that reflects the past and comments on the present. My intention is to comprehend the past so that I can understand the present and share that knowledge with the viewer. My work ultimately spans cultures and adds to the contributions of Latina and feminist communities in the United States and Latin America. Dream Map and Cornucopia is inspired by Spanish Colonial barníz de Pasto—a process using a natural resin indigenous to Colombia which was turned from its original role to mimic Chinese lacquer. Using collage as an interpretation of this practice, I paint, cut, and collage flowers from decorative objects—all researched and studied from colonial barníz de Pasto—and place them side-by-side with drones and images of masculine figures shooting at animals and plants. I use this juxtaposition of contemporary violence and historically sourced iconography and techniques to explore a contemporary colonization of culture and the brutality inherent in it.

ARTIST BIO

Nancy Friedemann-Sánchez is a Colombo-American artist with an interdisciplinary practice. Her work investigates the complex intersections of migration, identity, gender, cultural memory, and the effects of colonization. She is creating an intersectional feminist visual novel that is a multifaceted project comprised of paintings, sculptures, objects, and mixed media that together—and in different voices—weave a synchronicity of narratives about hybridity and cultural ownership.

She is in the Elisabeth Sackler Feminist Art Base at the Brooklyn Museum and represented Colombia at the 20 Congreso Internacional: La Experiencia Intelectual de las Mujeres en el Siglo XXI in 2012 in Mexico City. Exhibition highlights include: the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City, UT; the Nerman Museum of Art, Overland Park, KS; the Miami Museum of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; Blue Star Contemporary, San Antonio, TX; the Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE; La Bienal de Cuenca, Ecuador; the Sheldon Museum of Art, Lincoln, NE; the Joslyn Museum of Art, Omaha, NE; the Portland Art Museum, Portland, OR; El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY; the Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York, NY; and the Harvard Museums of Science and Culture at Harvard University, Cambridge, MA.

She has been awarded the Catherine Doctorow Prize for Contemporary Painting, a Nebraska Arts Council Fellowship, a Smithsonian Artist Fellowship, a Puffin grant, a Pollock Krasner grant, and a NALAC grant. She has held residencies at Banco de la República, Bogotá, Colombia; Art OMI, Ghent, NY; Fountainhead, Miami, FL; the Tamarind Institute, Albuquerque, NM; Yaddo, Saratoga Springs, NY; Gasworks, London, England; the Bemis Center for Contemporary Arts, Omaha, NE; and the Bronx Museum for the Arts, New York, NY.

Nancy co-runs FIENDISH PLOTS, an exhibition space in Lincoln, NE with her husband Charley Friedman.