American
b. 1939, Pittsfield, Massachusetts —
d. 1995, New York, New York

Nancy Graves was a New York-based sculptor, painter, printmaker, and sometime-filmmaker known for her focus on natural phenomena, from camels to maps of the moon. Her personal aesthetic emerged in the later 1960s in the form of realistic life-size sculptures of camels. These works are rooted in childhood memories of the animals preserved in the Natural History section of the Berkshire Museum in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

Graves’ exploration of the interplay between the replication of nature and the formal values of abstract art was to inform her work throughout her life. Transposing concepts from one medium to another, she continuously infused her work with new and innovative ideas.

Visual representations of natural phenomena like weather maps and NASA-produced moon maps inspired her paintings, drawings and prints of the early 70s. The outlines of her maps were reduced to linear abstractions in flat works of the later 70s. They were translated into three-dimensional drawings in space in Graves's sculpture of the 1980s. These abstract structures were painted with colorful patinas that reflected the brilliant tones of her paintings, watercolors and prints.

Nancy Graves’ works are included in many public collections, including those of the National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC; the Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York; the Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington, DC; the National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; the Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota; and many others. When Graves was just 29, she was given a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. At the time she was the youngest artist, and fifth woman to achieve this honor.