Nancy Willis
Artist Nancy Willis lives and works in Napa Valley, CA and holds an M.F.A. in painting from San Francisco Art Institute. Willis translates moments of daily life into evocative paintings and monotypes. An unmade bed, sparkling chandeliers and the remains of a dinner party are motifs the artist employs to explore themes around the intimacy of a moment and connection. She paints from her lived experience, often dissolving the line between representation and abstraction similar to how images are recorded to personal memory.
Willis translates the transitory aspects of time through an additive and subtractive process with oil paint or ink. Layers of color and light play are central in her work to evoke a sense of place and create atmosphere. That life can change in instant became the center of a. two-year painting series about the 2020 Glass Fire. The wildfire ravaged much of her neighborhood that was home to families and wildlife.
Art and empathy are embedded in her practice. Willis uses her voice through community and curatorial projects that bring awareness to global conflicts. She has received numerous grants for Conflict Zone, a collaborative printmaking project that began with Yazidis from northern Iraq in 2017. The series has expanded to bring awareness about the human cost of war in Syria, Ukraine and Gaza. Willis will be presenting limited works from this series at StARTup SF.
Nancy Willis is four-time Startup Art Fair alumni, having participated in SF, Chicago, Houston, LA and returning to StArtup SF 2025. Her work was recently exhibited throughout California including the True North exhibition at di Rosa Contemporary Art, Human Rights at College of the Sequoias and Tree Stories at Sasse Musuem. The artist’s work is held in the collections of Paine Webber NYC, NY, Patina Group LA,CA, Archer Hotel Napa, CA, Claremont Graduate University, Claremont, CA
For more information about the artist, please visit her website.