Nora Sturges
Marco Polo's Travels
Artist's Statement and RésuméA few years ago I did a painting of Marco Polo bringing back spaghetti from China, and a friend who saw the painting suggested I read Italo Calvino’s book Invisible Cities. The book is fiction consisting only of Marco Polo’s descriptions to the Kubla Khan of the cities he has visited in his travels. Sometimes it is easier to see clearly the formal narrative qualities of a work of writing than of a work of art. I loved the mood created in this book by the fact that the reader is only provided a series of shifting and clouded descriptions with which to weave a larger narrative. This reminded me of Renaissance manuscript illuminations and the Persian, Indian, and East Asian paintings that illustrate stories, where the story’s text is not present (as is usually the case for the viewer of such paintings in art books or museums). The viewer is prompted by the picture to construct a vague and changing story, a story with the mood of a dream or a half memory.
In my recent paintings of imaginary events in Marco Polo’s travels, I am attempting to use a group of paintings in a similar way-- to form an absent story, and at the same time to explore ideas of xenophobia, tourism, exoticism and cultural difference. In these paintings, Marco Polo is cast as the quintessential tourist; he gets blisters from his new shoes, gets lost in inhospitable landscapes and is forced to try new foods. A wealthy westerner, he is both drawn to and made uneasy by the foreign-ness of the exotic places he visits.
Website with complete series: http://pages.towson.edu/nsturges/welcome.html.
EDUCATION
1992 M.F.A. Painting, Ohio University, Athens, Ohio 1990 A.B. Magna Cum Laude, Bowdoin College, Brunswick, Maine SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2006 Second Street Gallery, Charlottesville, Virginia, Adventures with Marco Polo College of Notre Dame, Baltimore, Maryland, Travels with Marco Polo 2005 Lancaster Museum of Art, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Marco Polo’s Travels 2002 Ventura College, Ventura, California Miami University, Oxford, Ohio, Disgusting Nature School 33 Art Center, Baltimore, Maryland, New Work: Paintings by Nora Sturges The Barth Galleries, Columbus, Ohio, New Paintings by Nora Sturges 2001 Sheetz Gallery, Pennsylvania State University, Altoona, Pennsylvania Leu Gallery, Belmont University, Nashville, Tennessee 2000 Bachelier-Cardonsky Gallery, Kent, Connecticut The Barth Galleries, Columbus, Ohio, Nora Sturges: Imagined Events and Landscapes 1999 Bachelier-Cardonsky Gallery, Kent, Connecticut 1998 1708 Gallery, Richmond, Virginia, Nora Sturges: Imaginary Landscapes The Barth Galleries, Columbus, Ohio, Nora Sturges: Recent Work 1997 SPACELab Gallery at Spaces, Cleveland, Ohio, Nora Sturges: Between Dreaming and Waking 1995 McDonough Museum of Art, Youngstown State Univ., Youngstown, Ohio SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2006 The Painting Center, New York City, Grand Allusions, curated by Carmela Kolman Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts, Annapolis, Maryland, Magical Realism, curated by Christina Manucy 2005 Pennsylvania College of Art & Design, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Telling Stories: The Narrative in Contemporary Art, curated by Kristy Krivitsky McLean Project for the Arts, McLean, Virginia, Strictly Painting V, Jonathan Binstock, Curator of Contemporary Art, Corcoran Gallery of Art, juror. 2004 Bachelier-Cardonsky Gallery, Kent, Connecticut, Human Nature Maryland Art Place, Baltimore, Maryland, Critics’ Residency Program, Amei Wallach, curator Howard County Center for the Arts, Ellicott City, MD, ArtMD 2004, Stephen Bennett Phillips, curator, the Phillips Collection, juror. 1708 Gallery, Richmond, Virginia, Critical Mass, Peter Schjeldahl, juror Truman State University, Kirksville, Missouri, 14th Annual National Art Competition, Jeff Flemming, Senior Curator, Des Moines Art Center, juror. 2003 Maryland State Arts Council, 7 MSAC Individual Artist Grant Recipients FY2002 Bachelier-Cardonsky Gallery, Kent, Connecticut, Strictly For The Birds Maryland Federation of Art, Baltimore, Maryland, Drawings and Etchings, juried The Barth Galleries, 10th Anniversary Show, Columbus, Ohio 2002 Delaware Center for the Contemporary Arts, Wilmington, Delaware, Allegorical Expressions in Contemporary Painting Bachelier-Cardonsky Gallery, Kent, Connecticut, Humanity New Harmony Gallery of Contemporary Art, New Harmony, Indiana, Nora Sturges, Clayton Peterson, M. M. Dupay Bachelier-Cardonsky Gallery, Kent, Connecticut, Windows Howard County Center for the Arts, Ellicott City, Maryland, Heaven, Hell and the Garden Fleckenstein Gallery, Towson, Maryland, Everybody Draws 2001 Schoharie County Arts Council, Cobbleskill, New York, National Small Works Exhibition, David Beitzel, juror 2000 Howard County Center for the Arts, Ellicott City, Maryland, ArtMD 2000, Dr. Susan Rosenberg, juror Kingston Gallery, Boston, Massachusetts, New Art Y2K, curated by Susan Stoops First Street Gallery, New York City, National Competition, William Beckman, juror Makeready Press Gallery at Gallery 214, Montclair, New Jersey, Dreamscapes Landscapes 1999 Spruill Center for the Arts, Atlanta, Georgia, A View From The Garden The Barn Gallery, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee, Figures and Landscapes: Mikhail Gubin, Nora Sturges, Kate Borcherding Herndon Gallery, Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio, Burge and Sturges: 8x10 1998 Bachelier-Cardonsky Gallery, Kent, Connecticut The Barth Galleries, Cleveland, Ohio, Nora Sturges, Ken Koon, Paintings The Barth Galleries, Columbus, Ohio, Fifth Anniversary Show 1997 Burke Hall Gallery, Denison University, Granville, Ohio, Female Myths: Work by Christine French, Jill Ziccardi, Nora Sturges ACME Art Company, Columbus, Ohio, Work by Nora Sturges and Linda Leviton The Barth Galleries, Cleveland, Ohio, Inaugural Exhibition 1996 Manhattanville College, Purchase, New York, Nora Sturges and Dee Carnelli The Barth Galleries, Columbus, Ohio, Nora Sturges, Morris Jackson, Christine C. Smith Machine Shop Gallery, University of Cincinnati, Cincinnati, Ohio, Evocations ARTICLES, REVIEWS
2006 *J. Bowers, “Travels with Marco Polo,” City Paper (Baltimore), 10/4/06, p. 43 Laura Parsons, “Mental Traveller: Sturges’ Marco Polo is Go!,” Charlottesville (VA) Hook, 2/15/06 2005 Michael O’Sullivan, “Different Strokes for Different Folks,” Washington Post, 6/24/05, p. 50 *Carla D Fonzo, “Telling stories, but leaving room for interpretation,” Lancaster (PA) Inteligencer Journal, 3/4/2005, p.8. *Aileen Humphreys, “Strange Journeys,” Lancaster (PA) Inteligencer Journal, 3/4/2005, p.9. *Kathleen Daminger, “Tell me a drawing, paint me a story,” Lancaster New Era, 3/3/2005, p. 12. 2004 Glenn McNatt, Baltimore Sun, 4/8/2004, 5C. *Cathryn Keller, Catalog Essay for Maryland Art Place’s Annual Critics’ Residency Program, Link: A Critical Journal on the Arts in Baltimore and the World, Issue 9, spring, 2004. 2002 *Mike Giuliano, “Hysterical Fictions,” City Paper (Baltimore), 6/29/2002, p. 36-37. *Christopher A. Yates, “Surreal Paintings Awaken the Dreamer in Each of Us,”
The Columbus Dispatch, 2/3/2002, G8.Victoria Donohoe, “Lack of Irony Makes a Sincere Showing,” The Philadelphia Inquirer,2/17/2002. Mike Giuliano, The Howard County Times, “Heaven, Hell and the Garden “ 2/14/2002, 36. 2000 *Jeanne Fryer Kohles, Dialogue, “Nora Sturges: Imagined Events and Landscapes,” Mar/Apr, 2000, 24. *“Portfolio” (Artist Profile), Dialogue, January/February, 2000, Columbus, 46. Mike Giuliano, “Art Maryland is More Far-sighted,” The Howard County Times, 11/23/2000, 24. 1999 *Pamela Blume Leonard, “Celebrating Art, Naturally,” Atlanta Journal Constitution, 7/9/1999, Q8. *Kay Hodge, “MTSU Art Prof. Exhibits Tiny Paintings,” Daily News Journal (Murfreesboro, TN), March 11, 1999, 1D. 1998 *Amy Bracken Sparks “Nora Sturges, Ken Koon at the Barth Galleries,” Cleveland Plain Dealer, 6/16/1998, 1E. 1997 *Kay Koeninger,The Columbus Dispatch, April 13, 1997. 1996 Owen Findsen, “Effect of Six-artist “Evocations” Exhibition is Dreamy,” Cincinnati Enquirer, 4/10/1996, C7
*with reproduction
PUBLICATIONS
2004 New American Paintings, number 51, p.142-145. 2002 Cover painting, The Journal, a literary magazine published by Ohio State University, vol. 26.1, 2002. 1999 Six drawings published in Quarter After Eight, A Journal of Prose and Commentary, vol. 5, 1999. 1998 New American Paintings, number 16, p. 96-97, 125. 1996 Paintings reproduced on the cover and liner of Flood at the Ant Farm, a recording by Phillip Johnston’s Big Trouble, Black Saint Records. GRANTS AND AWARDS
2005 Second Place, McLean Project for the Arts, Strictly Painting V 2004 New American Paintings, Mid-Atlantic Competition Juror’s Choice Award, Truman State University National Competition Juror’s Choice Award, ArtMD 2004 2002 Individual Artist Award, Maryland State Arts Council 2001 Honorable Mention, Schoharie County Arts Center, National Small Works Exhibition 2000 Honorable Mention, ArtMD 2000, Howard County Center for the Arts 1998 New American Paintings, Southern Competition 1994 Purchase Award, John Slade Ely House, New Haven, Connecticut 1993 Purchase Award, Carnegie Art Center, North Tonawonda, New York TEACHING EXPERIENCE
1999-present Associate Professor of Art (Assistant Prof. 1999-2005), Head, Painting and Foundations, Towson University, Towson, Maryland 1997-99 Assistant Professor of Art, Middle Tennessee State University, Murfreesboro, Tennessee