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UPCOMING SHOW PREVIEW / JULIE NESTER GALLERY
3/1-3/26 Park City, UTJENNIFER NEHRBASSPioneer Woman
I
nspired by Willa Cather’s 1913 novel
O Pioneers!, Jennifer Nehrbass’ latest
series dreamily combines the Old West,
fashion and fabrication in a style best
described as “magical realism”—as the
artist herself puts it. Pioneer Project takes
its pilgrimage to Julie Nester Gallery this
March, bringing figures and landscapes
along for the ride.
“Jennifer’s paintings have always reso-
nated with our clients,” gallery ownerJulie Nester says. She continues, “But the
paintings in Pioneer Project have created
a higher degree of interest and dialogue.
The figurative paintings have especially
been appreciated. Not only are they visu-
ally beautiful, but the fictional narrative of
women as the explorers and documentar-
ians has a relevancy that is powerful at this
time in our society.”
Rather than directly re-creating a person,
object, place or moment in time, Nehrbassemploys a variety of fact and fiction to
create her artwork, spawning from both
what she’s experienced in real life and
elements created entirely from her own
imagination.
The landscapes in Pioneer Project,
for example, are not meant to depict
real places, nor are they meant to be
interpretations.
“One of the reasons I really love doing
the landscapes is they’re kind of like a
dream postcard that I give to people,” she
says. “But they’re not real.”
The women she depicts in the series—
chic, bold and confident—fall into the same
category. “There’s a lot of falseness in it,
but it leans true when you first look at it,”
Nehrbass notes.
Without knowing anything about
her background, elements from fashion
design are unavoidable upon first look of
Nehrbass’ figures. So, it should come as no
surprise that she spent 10 years working as
a design director for Ralph Lauren before
pursuing her art career full time.
“What I took from working at Ralph
Lauren into my painting is using patterns,
gestures and environments in my work
and using fabrics and lighting to tell
stories. The patterning is always really
important. I was very intentional to make
[Pioneer Project] not look so Western and
mix textile design from different areas of
history. It’s a very transcendental style of
the patterns,” she says. “I think people will
appreciate the differences between the
realism and patterning. There’s a little bit of
juxtaposition between beauty and tension.”
Antonia, Nehrbass’ favorite painting
from the series, is a prime example of this.
“She kind of has this forlorn look. She has a
pioneer hat on...I think it shows this tension
between what could have been as far as the
West and what could be. That tension is
really quite lovely,” she says.1
Antonia, oil on canvas,
48 x 36"
2
Willa, oil on canvas,
48 x 30"3
Marie, oil on canvas,
48 x 30"
4
Blue Narrows, oil on
canvas, 48 x 65"1