Moongold Art

Nancy Lorenz is renowned for her use of materials, which range from burlap, jute and clay, to the most luxurious mother of pearl and gold leaf. A direct influence of her time in Japan as an adolescent, Lorenz’s paintings have long presented subjects of the sublime in luxurious materials most commonly associated with a craft tradition. Lorenz blurs the lines between design and high art. Initiating her process with very loose, gestural drawings in Sumi ink, her paintings evolve into incredibly lavish, worked surfaces that are as complex and moving as the elements she observes. Fusing a Japanese aesthetic with the incidental marks and unrestrained brushwork of Abstract Expressionism, Lorenz has inserted her luxurious materiality into the realm of art history. Synchronously a Minimalist in composition, a Modernist in subject matter and a master of her technique, Lorenz has developed an east-meets-west ideology that is uniquely her own. Nancy Lorenz earned a BFA in painting and printmaking at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor and an MFA in painting from the Tyler School of Art, studying in Philadelphia, Rome and Japan. She is a 1998 recipient of a John Simon Guggenheim award. In 2014 and 2015, her work has been featured in exhibitions at the McNay Art Museum in Houston, the Akron Museum and the Nassau County Museum of Art. She has an upcoming exhibition at the San Diego Museum of Art in 2018. She has ongoing collaborations with many of the world's leading architects and designers including William T. Georgis, David Mann, Peter Marino, Michael Smith and William Sofield. Public commissions include Chanel stores worldwide, the Gucci Towers in Tokyo and Hong Kong, the Beverly Hilton in Los Angeles and the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in the Time/Warner center in New York City. She has recently completed limited edition projects with Tomas Maier for Bottega Veneta and with jewelry designer Temple St. Clair for Paris Fashion Week. Full materials list: Red gold leaf, gesso and burlap on panel.

Bring audacious experiments with color and textures to your living room, dining room or home office. Abstract paintings, large or small, will stand out in your space, encouraging conversation and introducing a museum-like atmosphere that’s welcoming and conducive to creating memorable gatherings.

Abstract art has origins in 19th-century Europe, but it came into its own as a significant movement during the 20th century. Early practitioners of abstraction included Wassily Kandinsky, although painters were exploring nonfigurative art prior to the influential Russian artist’s efforts, which were inspired by music and religion. Abstract painters endeavored to create works that didn’t focus on the outside world’s conventional subjects, and even when artists depicted realistic subjects, they worked in an abstract mode to do so.

In 1940s-era New York City, a group of painters working in the abstract mode created radical work that looked to European avant-garde artists as well as to the art of ancient cultures, prioritizing improvisation, immediacy and direct personal expression. While they were never formally affiliated with one another, we know them today as Abstract Expressionists.

The male contingent of the Abstract Expressionists, which includes Jackson Pollock, Willem de Kooning and Robert Motherwell, is frequently cited in discussing leading figures of this internationally influential postwar art movement. However, the women of Abstract Expressionism, such as Helen Frankenthaler, Lee Krasner, Joan Mitchell and others, were equally involved in the art world of the time. Sexism, family obligations and societal pressures contributed to a long history of their being overlooked, but the female Abstract Expressionists experimented vigorously, developed their own style and produced significant bodies of work.

Draw your guests into abstract oil paintings across different eras and countries of origin. On 1stDibs, you’ll find an expansive range of abstract paintings along with a guide on how to arrange your wonderful new wall art.

If you’re working with a small living space, a colorful, oversize work can create depth in a given room, but there isn’t any need to overwhelm your interior with a sprawling pièce de résistance. Colorful abstractions of any size can pop against a white wall in your living room, but if you’re working with a colored backdrop, you may wish to stick to colors that complement the decor that is already in the space. Alternatively, let your painting make a statement on its own, regardless of its surroundings, or group it, gallery-style, with other works.