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nkaguilar fineart

Art Biography

I was a Fine Art major at California State University, Fresno between 1968 and 1974. At that time the university was a center of growth for the women’s art movement.  Judy Chicago and many other women artists were living and teaching in Fresno. They were all a major influence on me and other young women in the art department.
In 1974 a group of us opened Gallery 25, one of the first women’s cooperative art galleries in the country. I participated in many group shows at Gallery 25 and had my first solo show there before I moved to Los Angeles to work on my Master of Fine Art degree.
I transferred to California State University, Los Angeles in 1976.  I began to develop abstract body imagery from the drawings I had been doing in Fresno comparing human and cattle anatomy.  My master’s exhibition was based on this theme. The Prismacolor pencil drawings I created were abstracted combinations of animal and human forms that glowed with sensual, fleshy color.
In the 1980’s I felt a need to reach a deeper understanding of the essential concepts I was trying to express in my work. I eliminated color to concentrate on form alone and produced a series of black and white drawings that can be interpreted as landscape or body shapes.
The 1990’s was the beginning of more personal and spiritual growth and development. As my notions about the nature of reality broadened, my art became more concerned with universal themes. I studied metaphysics, read about quantum physics, and incorporated these ideas in my artwork.
In 1991 I joined LA Art, a membership gallery with several locations. I began showing my work regularly in Los Angeles. This led to membership in other galleries such as Long Beach Arts and Gallery 825/LAAA. I mounted two solo shows and was included in many juried shows in Southern California.  I was involved in professional organizations, like the Southern California Women’s Caucus for Art and the Arroyo Arts Collective.
Through Gallery 825/LAAA, I met Victoria Taylor Alvarez. She introduced me to site specific installation artwork. It grew in to a new form of expression for me. We created mandalas and installations in exhibits all over Southern California.
I relocated to the Pacific Northwest in 2012. My environment is vastly different from my environment in Southern California. Our property is ringed by trees and forest on all sides. We are close to rural areas and farms. My current work focuses on the energy matrix I find all around me in trees and the natural world.  I hope to open up the viewer’s mind to perceiving this energy matrix and contemplating their role in it.  As I pursue this intention, the concepts behind my work deepen and my understanding of myself and my reality continue to expand.