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site by Csik

The Nude, Stripped of Metaphor Rich,
Striking Images From Nancy Depew
by Michael Welzenbach
Excerpts from:
The Washington Post
Washington, DC, 1990

With her one-woman show of untitled drawings and paintings at the David Adamson Gallery, New Jersey-based artist Nancy Depew reasserts the timeless appeal of the female nude - not as symbol or metaphor, but simply as form and physical presence.

Her richly worked charcoal drawings, in particular, communicate her sheer delight in rendering every curve, every sinew and muscled shadow of her subjects. And while some of the poses are a bit dramatically forced, by and large these starkly chiaroscuro nudes are riveting, and project a subtle mix of physical self-awareness and underlying eroticism.

Depew's moody interiors lend the nudes poignancy. Posed in large, shadowy rooms with single items of furniture such as chairs, clutching curtains or reclining on sofas, these women are in most respects rendering in the grand tradition of salon figure drawing everywhere. Yet, due to this artist's vigorous style and willingness to distort anatomy occasionally to achieve heightened movement and tension, they're a far cry from your typical student studies

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