Bio
Nancy Grace Horton is a photography-based artist embracing both analog and digital techniques to create narratives around gender and identity. Her series Ms. Behavior, Mad Women, Mr.Mrs., and Being 13 utilize constructed gender roles as inspiration to provoke thoughtful reflection and stimulate dialogue. Humorous, ironic, and biting, her images distill the angst of both feminism and the Playboy era. Delving deep into her practice, Horton is currently utilizing projections, audio conversations, and installation to create immersive experiences—an exciting new direction in her practice
Horton has mounted numerous solo shows and exhibited widely at venues including Newport Art Museum, Danforth Art Museum, Griffin Museum, New York Photo Festival, A.I.R. Gallery in Brooklyn, NY, and the Robin Rice Gallery in Manhattan, NY. Jessica Hagen Gallery in Newport, RI represents Horton’s fine art photographic prints, and her work is featured in the permanent collection of the Newport Art Museum.
A passionate speaker, Horton delivers impactful and engaging talks on her art making, enticing audiences to consider their own experiences, ponder perspectives, and inspire and be inspired by others. She has made presentations and led workshops at several universities and museums, and is available for speaking engagements and community residency collaborations.
The recipient of numerous grants and awards, Horton most recently won an Artist Entrepreneurial Grant from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts. She is an Adjunct Professor of Photography and conducts independent creative workshops. Through her Learning to See school and community projects in the U.S. and abroad, Horton teaches students of all ages to use photography to explore personal identity and community. She holds an MFA from Lesley University Art + Design.
“Nancy Grace Horton’s work is humorous, meaningful, and visually rich. It is very much of this moment in contemporary American life as it comments on gender roles and portrayals of women in visual culture. Most importantly, it makes us all want to Ms. Behave a little.”
— Francine Weiss, Former Curator, Newport Art Museum
Artist Statement
I am a photo-based artist and visual storyteller investigating culturally constructed gender roles. I use humor and irony to explore the norms of prescribed behavior and misbehavior, provoking conversations about power and equality.
I’m drawn to creating a narrative—framing a scene, arranging objects, figures, colors, and light. Inspired by cinema, television, advertising, and personal experience, my process is planned but not scripted. Emphasizing fashion and the figure, props, models, and location act as catalysts for the development of compositions suggesting fragments of open-ended stories. Visually bold and steeped in saturated color, my work is often evocative of a mid-twentieth century style and aesthetic framed within a contemporary context.
Embracing the possibilities of both contemporary and historical methods, my practice includes digital and analog techniques, as well as making books and cyanotypes. Most recently, I’m exploring the possibilities of using projection, audio conversations, and installation to create immersive experiences.
CV
Thank you to the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts for the many years of support.