Nancy Saleme
BIOGRAPHY
Nancy Saleme is a Latinx visual artist and industrial textile designer based in Brooklyn. With art degrees from Lima, Caracas, Łódź, and New York. Her work has been included in prominent national and international galleries, universities, and art fairs. Venues such as John Jay College for Criminal Justice, NYC; Lehman College Art Gallery, Bronx; Museo Joaquín Arcadio Pagaza, Mexico City; Owensboro Museum of Fine Art; WAH Center, Brooklyn; Gallery Na Kashirke Moscow-Russia; Galerie R31 Berlin-Germany; Galería Club Empresarial Lima-Peru; AAF Contemporary Art Fair NYC; Arteamericas, Miami; Chicago Art Fair-Art London and Art Singapore among others. Saleme’s work is in the collections of Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, Brooklyn, The Venezuelan American Endowment for the Arts, New York, Gallery Shoshinkan Nagano-Japan as well as numerous private collections.
Besides her extensive exhibition records, Saleme has received recognition and support from various institutions, including the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures, The Puffin Foundation, UNIQLO/NYC Parks, El Museo del Barrio, and Newark Arts. She has collaborated with entities such as the Garment District Alliance, the NYC Department of Transportation, the John Michael Kohler Arts Center, 4Corners Public Art, Newark, NJ, NYC Health + Hospitals Arts in Medicine Community Mural Project for Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan. Recent accolades include the Newark Artist Accelerator grant from Project for Empty Space for two consecutive years, 2022 and 2023 (supported by The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Regional Regranting Program), the City of Newark Creative Catalyst Fund Grant for the years 2021 and 2022, and public art commissions from Audible's Newark Artist Collaboration, the City Artist Corps Grant/NYFA, Art Bridge Projects Grant/NYC Cultural Affairs Grant, and 4Corners Public Art Initiatives in Downtown Newark, NJ. Saleme also participated in the 19th Asian Art Biennale Bangladesh in 2022.
Additionally, Saleme has been an artist-in-residence at the Vermont Studio Center, ChaShaMa NYC, and the Children’s Museum of Manhattan. She has been twice a grantee of the Creative Aging: SU-CASA a community arts engagement program granted by the Brooklyn Arts Council.
STATEMENT
I have been fortunate to live a life enjoying its full creative potential. From being a textile designer for industrial manufacturing in Caracas to becoming a sculptor in New York City and mastering the odds of a professional visual display designer. These experiences are embedded and continuously influence my art-making. As a result, my artwork is made in a broad spectrum of materials and techniques such as resin, latex, fiberglass, wood, ink, acrylics and permanent markers. I combine all these materials to create drawings, paintings, photographs, sculptures, interventions, and public art. My art is a visual testimony of my existence and reveals personal experiences, sensitivities, and worries.
Rosa’s Garden, for instance, is comprised of leaves from a tobacco family plant that were encapsulated in resin that, over the years, turned to amber, giving a final touch of a fossil-like appearance. About ten layers of resin were freely poured into each panel, front and back, to reach the desired thickness. There are layers of film with handwriting between each leaf, containing pieces of unreadable text in Spanish, English, and a language in between, floating on the aquatic-looking surface of the resin.
“I Am Here Because I Care About You”, 2022
Digital painting on mesh vinyl with reinforced webbing
4 x 8 feet /12 panels
Baruch Houses/NYCHA/ LES, NYC
ArtBridge/ City Canvas / NYC Artist Corps / NYC Cultural Affairs
“Rosa’s Garden”
Handwritten text, ink, dried Tobacco leaves, Swarovski crystals, silver, nylon, and resin
Size variable – five pieces installation each piece is approximately 36" x 36" each panel
“Cuando El Destino Nos Alcance”, 2021
Hand-drawn patterns, ink, acrylic, resin, screws, archival inject print on wood panel
8 h. x 8 w. x 3 d. inches