Nancy Petry (artist)

Nancy Petry was born on 10 April 1931 and raised in Montreal, Quebec. In 1948, she attended McGill University where she studied painting under John Goodwin Lyman and John Fox. ==Career==

As one of the first artists in Quebec to adopt lyrical abstraction, Petry's 1959 solo exhibition at Galerie Agnès Lefort in Montreal drew attention for "simplicity and economy of harmonious line, form and colour". In 1962, the National Gallery of Canada organized a solo exhibition of her work, Paintings and Watercolours which toured Western Canada from September 1962 to May 1963. Although Petry moved to London, England, in 1962, she continued to exhibit in Canada with a solo exhibition of paintings, Recent Works, held at Galerie Agnès Lefort in 1963. In the United Kingdom, she participated in the 1966 Second Commonwealth Biennial of Abstract Art in London and in the 1967 Canadian Abstract Art Centennial Exhibition held in both London and Edinburgh. In 1968, she attended the Slade School of Art for post-graduate lithography and studied under Stanley Jones. By 1970, Petry divided her time between Montreal and London. In Montreal, she joined the print-making studio GRAFF and participated in a group exhibition at North Carolina State University. In 1975, Nancy Petry was one of seven artists invited by the Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal to paint "in situ" at the exhibition ''Processus '75. Her work Air Currents'', composed of sixteen 30"x 48" panels, was noted for its "extreme lightness of treatment, form and material". In the mid-1970s, Petry's art evolved to include happenings, art interventions and new media. In 1975, she joined the artist-run Véhicule Art, Montreal's first parallel gallery for alternative art including installation, performance and multimedia art. In 1978, she attended a 16mm film-making course conducted by Jenny Okun at the London Film-Makers' Co-op and began incorporating film into her art. In 1979, she created The Shadow Figure collaborating with dancers Édouard Lock and Michelle Fèbvre at Vehicule Art, and Les Naiades with dancer Bonnie Farmer at Montreal's Concordia University in 1994. Inspired by travel throughout her career, Voyages, a solo exhibition of her early work held at Montreal's Beaux-arts des Amériques gallery in 2014, ==Contribution==

In recognition of her contribution to the visual arts, Petry was inducted into the Royal Canadian Academy of Art (RCA) in 2015. As a multidisciplinary artist, Petry influenced painting, print-making and performance art in Canada. In 1970, she co-founded with Robert Savoie and René Derouin, the Association des graveurs du Québec which later became the Conseil des graveurs du Québec. From 1977 to 1980 as Vice-Chair and Gallery Coordinator at Véhicule Art, Petry brought many national and international artists to Montreal, including: Nan Hoover, Miller and Cameron, and Reindeer Werk. She was also Véhicule Art's delegate to Arte Fiera in Bologna in 1977 and 1978, and was instrumental in "establishing the gallery as the main venue of performance art in Canada". Petry's work is found in public collections throughout the Commonwealth including: The British Museum in London, National Gallery of Australia in Canberra, National Library of Canada and Canada Council Art Bank in Ottawa, Musée d'art contemporain de Montréal, Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec in Montreal, and Confederation Centre Art Gallery in Charlottetown. Her work is also in the collections of the National Centre for Contemporary Arts in Kaliningrad, Russia, Galleria de arte do Sesi in São Paulo, Brazil, and the Museum of New Art in Detroit. ==Death==

Petry died on 18 November 2024, at the age of 93. ==References==