With a career spanning seven decades, Nancy Kravetz has continually explored how form and color can be organized to create meaning. Her early training focused on representational painting, beginning with landscapes and seascapes inspired by her New England upbringing. She refined her technical skills through formal study at the Sargent School of Painting, the Prize Program at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, and Simmons College.

In 1969, Kravetz’s artistic journey shifted decisively toward abstraction after meeting and working with contemporary artist Dorothy Fratt. This encounter led to a sustained exploration of nonrepresentational form, resulting in a prolific body of paintings and collages. Her compositions are carefully planned, with shapes, edges, and color relationships purposefully arranged to achieve balance, tension, and visual clarity.

While form and color are central to Kravetz’s visual language, her approach is deeply informed by lived experience. The collages in this exhibition draw inspiration from the rolling tide along a shell-strewn beach, the discovery of unusual handmade papers, and the quiet wonder of a full moon or a star-filled night sky. These moments—rooted in observation and memory—continue to shape her work today in her Phoenix studio.  

Organized by Natalie Marsh, director of Scottsdale Arts Learning & Innovation.