Nanci Byrne

Painting (MA)

A woman laying on the ground surrounded by foliage and little monkeys — I thought you'd want what I want 2025 Oil on Linen 120cm x 150 cm

A warped tapestry like tree painting — Blowback 2025 Oil on Linen 70cm x 100cm

A tapestry painting with lots of monkeys wearing masks — How many monkeys to ruin a painting? 2025 Oil on Linen 100cm x 100cm

A warped tapestry like tree painting with stars all over — I will be with you when you lose your breath 2025 Oil on Linen 75cm x 95cm

About

Nanci Byrne is a London born & based painter.

Toying with misdirection, movement and ambience, Nanci creates ornate paintings that challenge the boundaries of what is meant by ‘decorative’. Soft shapes conceal disquieting atmospheres, with surrealistic, dreamlike imagery unfurling and revealing itself. When viewing her pieces there is often the uneasy sense that they look back at you. Underpinning the whole of her practice is an exploration into the relentlessness of mother/womanhood, which she approaches with darkly comedic references, animal motifs, and the complex interplay of repetition, pattern and destruction.

As a trained textiles designer, Nanci is especially driven to explore the (sometimes negative) value placed on decorative art within a contemporary context. This also reflects her thoughts on how women’s work is often unnoticed or/and under valued. Asking the question of Art vs Craft? Her paintings draw inspiration from 17th cent. tapestries, the Art & Crafts movement, but also her long-standing love of video games and childhood fear of Disney films.

Nanci is supported by the Frank Bowling Scholarship.

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