81 Leonard Gallery in New York City is pleased to present Nancy Pantirer’s solo exhibition Coming Full Circle, on view September 4th through October 11th, 2025.
Working out of Tribeca for the past three decades, Pantirer has borne witness to many seasons; in the neighborhood, in her own life, and in her practice. This current body of work reflects and relies on past investigations in material and form, while continuing to open new avenues for expression. Explorations into geometry and illusion are met with collage, organic materials, and personal references, as Pantirer embraces the intimacy and slowness of her ever-evolving approach to abstract painting
In Coming Full Circle, a dialogue emerges from several eras of Pantirer’s practice, mirroring the distinct eras of her own life. Certain periods have prompted Pantirer to shift techniques, such as the isolation of the Covid pandemic, during which she began scavenging tree branches from the forest near her home and weaving them through canvas. She also experimented with natural processes, leaving paper out in her backyard during rainstorms, and with natural materials, dying with coffee and cinnamon. Pantirer’s practice has changed with the expansion of her family, which has also drawn more of her time to the home. Since becoming a grandmother, her work has become more modular; small pieces are done at home and assembled at her studio in Tribeca over the course of months and sometimes years. Each paper stained by the rain serves to document time, while the continuous process of layering and peeling and layering again on the canvas obscures any linear conception of it. The resulting compositions reflect Pantirer’s current experience of time, in which memories and familiar ideas inevitably resurface and take new forms.
The works on view play with geometry and structure, striking a dialogue between order and freedom that has long interested Pantirer. Past series have incorporated UV light, mirrors, protrusions under stretched canvas, and other tactics that engage one’s sense of curiosity around what is seen and unseen or how a “finished” painting can be viewed in different ways. In Coming Full Circle, Pantirer furthers this investigation through drawing and painting shapes and lines onto the walls around and behind several paintings. Pantirer’s works are often versatile in their orientation, and this extension onto the wall is also subject to change upon installation elsewhere or at a different moment in time. If a painting stays in the studio too long, it is also subject to change, evidenced by pieces such as Replay, Free Fall, and When I speak you know what I mean, whose surfaces were built up atop older paintings.
A language of markmaking has also emerged from years of experimenting with various combinations of tools and materials. Micaceous iron oxide applied with an industrial pesticide spray canister and Flashe black matte acrylic painted with a foam brush are a few of the recognizable motifs found in these new collaged works. While some elements of Pantirer’s practice persist, others transform, and when one comes full circle, a new cycle begins.
Nancy Pantirer is a New York-based artist working primarily in large-scale abstract painting. She holds a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the Hartford Art School at the University of Hartford, as well a Master of Arts from Montclair State College. She further refined her craft through graduate coursework at Tufts University Museum School in Boston and Pratt University in New York. Her painting and sculpture have been exhibited throughout the country and can be found in collections such as the University of Hartford, as well as in corporate and private collections. Her studio is located in Tribeca, New York City.
Image above: Nancy Pantirer, When I speak you know what I mean, 2025, Mixed media collage and acrylic on canvas, 40 in round.
