Nan Ring

Under the working title, “Saucy”, my recent works are feminist acts of rebellion. Instead of images offering figures of painted beauty, they offer the beauty of paint. They are intended to unapologetically provoke and poke fun, existing at the intersection of repulsion and attraction. With photographs of women representing multiple historical eras culled from copyright free images online as the starting point, each image is subverted to empower as a response to repression. While many younger generations of women may not personally remember earlier eras in history with their limited roles for women, strong recent changes in policy that affect women such as the overturning of Roe v. Wade foretell a resurgence in repressive ideology and leadership. As someone who does remember, I present these mediated images now as questions and challenges. One of the major themes of my work is the idea of the vast within the intimate moment. With women’s rights challenged every day, the powerful women in my paintings cook, clean and carry on, ever conscious, in the small moments of their everyday lives, of a vast culture intent on disempowering and using them but which only ends up revealing their strength.

Nan Ring is a visual artist, poet and author. In her artwork and writing, she focuses on ideas of vastness within the intimate, small moment. Recurring themes are feminism, ephemerality, the domestic as a metaphor for home and country, and interiors both literal and psychological. Ring received a Monmouth Museum Juror’s Award in their Annual Jured Exhibition, 2025, Vermont Studio Center Artist’s Fellowship Award, the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation/NEA Fellowship Award, and a New York Foundation for the Arts Artists’ Fellowship Award. She has been awarded numerous artist-in-residencies, including Hambidge, I-Park, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Ucross Foundation, Djerrassi, Millay Arts, Edgewood Farm at Castle Hill, Soaring Gardens, ChaNorth, Villa Montalvo Center for the Arts, among others. Her national art exhibitions include The Monmouth Museum, Lincroft, NJ, The Painting Center, NYC, Susan Eley Gallery, Hudson, NY, Kenise Barnes, Larchmont, NY, Brassworks Gallery, Montclair, NJ, and 14C Art Fair, NJ among others. Her poetry has been published on Gray Sparrow Press and on About Place Journal, and is included in the anthology, “The Color Wheel”, Terrapin Press. Ring wrote and illustrated the critically acclaimed memoir, Walking On Walnuts, Bantam, 1996. She earned her MFA in Painting from The University of the Arts, PA, and her BFA in Studio Art from Syracuse University School of Visual and Performing Arts. She is co-director of the Hostetter Gallery in Basking Ridge, N.J.