Nancy Blum

Nancy Blum is known for her large-scale botanical drawings and public artworks. She started off as a maker in ceramics, pursuing an MFA at Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her education instilled in her a reverence for the values of craft, which complimented interests in devotional artwork of and botanical illustrations. 

Nancy Blum’s botanical art drawings invite the audience to experience aspirational ecosystems. The many plant species depicted, woven with colored pencil and ink into irreducible tapestries on paper would not traditionally flourish in the same ecosystem. But in this world, they create an environment of inclusivity, a vision built atop careful attention to form, embodying the essence of plant intelligence as a vital force. This in turn heightens Blum’s ability to express the invisible: the animating power of life, asking, how do we thrive together? This question is at the core of her studio and public art practices.

Blum’s ongoing series, ‘Black Drawings’ continues to explore the interconnectivity of all living things. The works represent a realm beyond the visible, providing a link between the cave and the soil, both mysterious realms of the collective unconscious. The works further reflect Blum’s own practice of meditation that has led the artist towards an investigation visioning consciousness, science, and abstraction. 

Blum’s drawings and sculptures have been represented in numerous exhibitions at galleries and other venues across the US such as the Weatherspoon Art Museum, UNC Greensboro; the International Print Center, New York; and the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens. Recent solo exhibitions have been held at Reynolds Gallery in Richmond, VA, and Ricco Maresca Gallery in New York City. Blum’s work is held in two dozen private and public collections, including the World Ceramic Exposition Foundation in Icheon, South Korea; the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art; and the Boise Art Museum.