Nancy Ngo

Born in Chicago, Ill., but was transplanted to Arizona as a young child. Nancy Ngo grew up learning an appreciation for contrasting landscapes. She developed an eye for the difference in the way light reflects on different terrains in the country. She was fascinated with light and color and started to experiment with painting and photography in high school. Nancy returned to Chicago after high school and became immersed in the diverse art and culture of the city. Ngo received her Bachelor of Fine Arts degree with an emphasis on Painting and Art History from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She has been cultivating a personal body of work since graduating from the School in 2001, drawing inspiration from a rich variety of intellectual and aesthetic sources. Once again, she returned to Arizona where she resides with her culinary artist husband and their two daughters. Nancy and her husband often travel abroad together for further inspiration.

About her Work

Nancy’s awareness of the play of light and shadow and its effect on color plays an important role in her work today. The dichotomy of the natural desert landscape of Arizona versus the urban downtown environment of Chicago led her to a certain “no rules” style of painting. Currently her paintings have a certain raw, playful, and sometimes unfinished quality in which the work holds a kind of potential energy, excitement and freedom. She often creates problems on the canvas, then, through her painting solves them. With every painting, there are an infinite number of approaches and decisions to be made.