Nancy Gesimondo

Nancy is a mixed-media artist who works with natural elements and found objects. Her current body of work is a series of photography-based assemblages influenced by the tradition of pioneering ecofeminism artists, such as Anne Brigman, Judy Chicago and Ana Mendieta who are also the subject in photographic images in nature.

Landscape is presented in these images to convey a connection to, and reverence for the natural world. Photographs of one’s self are often assumed to be self-portraits. Her point with these images is to suggest a persona, to embody and become something other than her self. These reflections draw upon themes associated with mythic images of the priestess that embody divine female power. In the ancient world, the priestess officiated sacred rituals. Their spiritual authority came from their inner wisdom, which was deeply grounded in the natural world. The titles of each of these reflections are verbs that ground us in the “doing”, and in this active sense reconnect us to the physical world around us.

The use of vintage ocular shaped frames create a lens into a timeless space that reminds us of how intimately we are embedded in the physical world. Subtly placed natural elements included in some of the pieces bridge the space between the camera’s eye and our own inner eye, elucidating the liminal threshold that exists between reality and perception.

In 2023 Nancy was awarded the NYFA Queens Arts Fund Grant and The Once Upon Water residency on Toronto Island. She received the City Artists Corp Grant in 2021, and the New Work Grant from The Queens Council on the Arts in 2020.

Her work has been exhibited both nationally and internationally. Two notable exhibitions include the Annual Juried Exhibition at The Queens Museum curated by Holly Solomon, and Metamorphosis show at the Palm Springs Art Museum curated by Alma Ruiz. Her work is held in private collections throughout the U.S. as well as in Germany and France.