Page Bond Gallery is pleased to present Some of the 100 Things, an exhibition of new paintings by Nancy Murphy Spicer.
Often focusing on single objects, the paintings function as meditations on everyday things one might encounter in the home, but usually wouldn’t record. Subjects ranging from a jelly jar, aging onions and pears are studied and rendered with careful devotion. Some of the still lifes seem mundane at first glance, but take on an interesting feel upon closer examination. In one of the paintings, an elephant garlic core is depicted sharp and smooth, like a bone, amidst a pink ethereal background that is both bodily and soft.
The paintings vary from heavy and painterly to light and gestural, many having an atmospheric glow. As a collection, they form a kind of personal diary of life over the past year, at times referencing seasons, family history and events, and significant places.
For Murphy Spicer, this series and project became all the more poignant during this time of the pandemic while in quarantine, creating a circumstance that further focused her attention on the small world within view at home.