Nancy Lorenz: "stand out " in exhibition Beauty Reigns at the McNay Art Museum

Beauty Reigns: A Baroque Sensibility in Recent Painting at the McNay Art Museum, San Antonio

Review by Rachel Adams

Lemon Gold, Silver Sulphur, 2014, 102 x 72 inches
"A standout from the group is New York-based artist Nancy Lorenz, who closes the show with a bang. Her installation of 26 small, untitled works along with two larger paintings—Gold Sea with Cloud and Lemon Gold, Silver Sulphur—allows the viewer to understand the varied materials Lorenz works with, including cardboard, burlap, mother-of-pearl, and gold and silver leaf. The small works are intimate, and the marks are organic. And while other works in the show exude precision, Lorenz’s paintings exude passion. One small work is corrugated cardboard the artist scratched into, almost feral in the gesture, and then covered in gold. The dimensionality and diverse surfaces of Lorenz’s gilded abstraction leads directly back to Baroque, particularly the Rococo movement of the late Baroque period. In these works, beauty truly reigns." - Rachel Adams, Arts + Culture Texas

Beauty Reigns: A Baroque Sensibility in Recent Painting
Illustrated book available, with essays by Lilly Wei and Stephen Westfall
Featuring work by Jose Alvarez (D.O.P.A.), Kamrooz Aram, Charles Burwell, Annette Davidek, Fausto Fernandez, Nancy Lorenz, Ryan McGinness, Beatriz Milhazes, Jiha Moon, Paul Henry Ramirez, Rex Ray, Rosalyn Schwartz, and Susan Chrysler White