Nan Tull – Artist Statement

For almost twenty years, encaustic has been my painting medium. Experimentation with prepared wax mediums and my own cold wax emulsions preceded my long-standing love affair with molten beeswax, where what goes on under its translucent surfaces interests me as much as what happens on top. My paintings are constructed in layers that can be filled in, scraped down, carved into or piled up.

The impetus for the new work began in 2002 as a yearning for quiet and refuge, simplicity and order in a noisy, stressed and chaotic post-9/11 world. Control in art is, I believe, largely a myth, but I nonetheless tried to establish some foundations of order to help guide me. It seemed important that my paintings try, through pure abstraction, to radiate symmetry, optimism and harmony, along with refreshing energy. In reacting against the complicated organic forms of the natural world that I had been using for years, I was at the same time revisiting and implementing in new ways ideas I explored in the early 1990’s.

The starkness of the 2004/05 palette has yielded with time to muted harmonies of color. The conversation established in that series continues in 2007 the preference for serial stripes, coherence and symmetry, with occasional forays into breaking up and crossing those stripes and lines into new patterns and intersections.

In summary, my paintings strive to reflect refinement and order, but nonetheless acknowledge the impossibility of perfection. A sense of timelessness and a human yearning for transcendence are the engines that motivate my work, which, hopefully, generates beauty in the process.

Fifth Year Certificate, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

Fourth Year Diploma, School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA

M.A. Stanford University, Stanford, CA

B.A. Wellesley College, Wellesley, MA

• 2007 St. Botolph Club, Boston, MA
• 2005 Miller Block Gallery, Boston, MA
• 2003 St. Botolph Club, Boston, MA
• 2000 Miller Block Gallery, Boston, MA
• 1998 Miller Block Gallery, Boston, MA
• 1996 Nesto Gallery, Milton Academy, Boston, MA
• 1996 Hopkins Center, Dartmouth College, Hanover, NH
• 1995 Miller Block Gallery, Boston, MA
• 1995 A.I.R. Gallery, New York, New York
• 1995 The Vineyard Museum, Edgartown, MA
• 1994 Boston Public Library, Boston, MA
• 1991 Akin Gallery, Boston, MA
• 1989 Akin Gallery, Boston, MA
• 1987 Akin Gallery, Boston, MA
• 1984 Chapel Gallery, West Newton, MA
• 1984 Lenore Gray Gallery, Providence, RI
• 1983 Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA
• 1981 Clark Gallery, Lincoln, MA
• 1978 Flag Gallery, Jamaica Plain, MA

• 2007 Per Square Foot, Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson, AZ
• 2007 Time and Space: 7 Fort Point MacDowell Fellows, FPAC Gallery, Boston, MA
• 2007 Members Exhibition, Danforth Museum, Framingham, MA
• 2007 Complex Women, Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, MA
• 2006 Sprinkler, Umbrella Arts. New York, NY
• 2006 Contemporary Antiquarians, Art at the Bridge, West Cornwall, CT
• 2006 Wish You Were Here, A.I.R. Gallery, New York, NY
• 2005 WAX: Encaustic Techniques in Contemporary Art, Brush Art Gallery, Lowell, MA
• 2004 Faces: New Vision, Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, MA
• 2003 The Way of Wax, Winfinsky Gallery, Salem State College, Salem, MA
• 2003 Women and Wax, Cape Cod Community College, W. Barnstable, MA
• 2002 Art at Steepletop, Millay Colony for the Arts, Austerlitz, NY
• 2001 Highlights from the Fleet Bank Collection, Cape Cod Museum of Fine Arts, Dennis, MA
• 1999 What Jack Built, The New Art Center, Newton, MA
• 1998 Waxworks: The Melted Medium, Art Complex Museum, Duxbury, MA
• 1996 New England Today, Chinese Cultural Institute, Boston, MA
• 1995 Inaugural Exhibition, Penny Liebman Contemporary Art, New York, NY
• 1995 Drawings from the Collection of Agnes Gund, The Century Association, New York, NY
• 1995 DeCordova Collects, DeCordova Museum, Lincloln, MA
• 1994 Metaphor as Reality, Danforth Museum of Art, Framingham, MA
• 1993 Fertile Ground, Miller Block Gallery, Boston, MA
• 1992 Contemporary Drawings and Monoprints, U. of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa City, IA
• 1990 Sixth Triennial Exhibition, Fuller Museum of Art, Brockton, MA
• 1990 Nature Transformed, Monserrat College of Art, Beverly, MA
• 1990 Salute to Our Award Winning Artists, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA
• 1990 D’Olympia, Twombly, and Tull, Gay Head Gallery, Gay Head, MA
• 1989 Drawing: Line or Image, Newport Art Museum, Newport, RI
• 1989 Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA
• 1989 Special Projects ’89, The ICA, PS1 Museum, Long Island City, NY
• 1989 The Collectors Show, Arkansas Art Center, Little Rock, AR
• 1989 Ninth Annual Drawing Show, Mills Gallery, Boston, MA
• 1989 Drawing Biennial, Muscarelle Museum, C. of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA
• 1987 Pindar Invitational, Pindar Gallelry, New York, NY
• 1987 Recent Work Group Exhibition, Leslie Cecil Gallery, New York, NY
• 1987 Fifth Triennial Exhibition, Fuller Art Museum, Brockton, MA
• 1987 Drawings from Boston, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, MA
• 1986 Massachusetts Fellowship Exhibition, Federal Reserve Bank Gallery, Boston, MA
• 1986 Extra Murals, DeCordova Museum at the Federal Reserve Bank Gallery, Boston, MA
• 1986 Seventh Annual Drawing Show, Mills Gallery, Boston Center for the Arts, Boston, MA
• 1985 Lifeline, Greenville County Museum of Art, Greenville, SC
• 1985 Exhibition of Paintings and Sculpture, Berkshire Museum, Pittsfield, MA
• 1982 Absolutely Abstract, Boston Visual Artists Union, Boston, MA
• 1981 Four New Collections, Mona Berman Gallery, New Haven, CT
• 1980 Traveling Scholars, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA
• 1980 Prints and Monoprints, Allport Associates Gallery, Larkspur, CA

Awards