2018 Exhibition:

"Her View: The Bay Area Figurative Art of Gail Chadell Nanao"
Sonoma Valley Museum of Art
"Water Venus II", 2008
oil on canvas

Born of deep studio practice and a thorough knowledge of the classical tradition of the nude, Nanao’s paintings are at once sophisticated and extraordinarily original. Blending the bravura brushwork of Abstract Expressionism with an improvisational reimagining of the figure, she is also among the last heirs of the Bay Area Figurative movement. Like her teacher Nathan Oliveira, Nanao finds her subject in the act of painting, an approach that allows her canvases to unfold intuitively, resulting in works that often chart deep and unexpected psychic waters.
Susan Landauer, Ph.D.
Art historian and curator