Artist Bridges Communities Through Art
Napa Valley Artist Bridges Communities Through Art – January 10- 20, 2019
We are fortunate to work with Nancy Willis as one of our talented teaching artists at Nimbus. Her project Conflict Zone: Sinjar to St. Helena will be on display January 10 -20 at Nimbus Arts. The exhibition includes monotypes by Yazidis from Northern Iraq including Nobel Peace Prize recipient Nadia Murad. Also on view are Willis’ related etchings and a sneak peek of a new series of her oil paintings of the terrain and villages of the Sinjar region in northern Iraq.
Exhibition dates:
January 10 – 20, 2019
Closing day reception – January 20th from 3-5 pm. Enjoy a glass of wine and meet Nancy!
Nimbus Arts, Studio 2, 649 Main St, St. Helena, CA
Film screening:
Tuesday January 15 at 5:00pm with Q and A to follow.
Cameo Cinema, St. Helena, CA
On Her Shoulders – awarded best documentary at Sundance, this film profiles Nadia Murad as she overcomes her personal pain to become a force of change on the world stage to stop human trafficking.
Tickets available soon at www.cameocinema.com
Cook Tavern will serve a complimentary glass of wine to any diners presenting their ticket stub.
This project is funded in part by a grant from the Arts Council Napa Valley. An intimate dinner with the founder of Yazda, Haider Elias will be hosted by Chris Hougie and Teresa Raffo on January 11th. Contact nancy@nancywillis.com to inquire about limited seats available.
Conflict Zone is St. Helena artist Nancy Willis’ artistic response to the ISIS led genocide of Yazidis in 2014. Willis followed their story, pained by the brutality and violence against women used as a strategy of war. She felt overwhelmed by the distance and scope of the conflict until an exhibition opportunity in 2017 opened the door for her to turn empathy into artistic action.
With support from YAZDA.org and an ACNV Foundation Grant, Willis travelled to Texas and worked with Yazidis from northern Iraq to create monotypes about their daily lives. Using the printmaking facility at the University of Houston, the collaborative process created bonds that reach beyond geographical boundaries. Willis also travelled to London to print with Nadia Murad, an ISIS held survivor and human rights activist who was just awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. The exhibition shows an intimate view of Yazidi life before and after ISIS and the cost of war on communities.
In January 2019, Willis will launch a joint exhibition of the Yazidi monotypes with her own work that led up to the project and a sneak peek of a new series of oil paintings that are in response to the Yazidi monotypes. The exhibition in St. Helena, California will coincide with a screening of the documentary “On Her Shoulders” at the Cameo Cinema on January 15th.
Through the display of the work and the film screening, Willis hopes to raise awareness of the genocide but also demonstrate the power of art to bridge the distance between global and local actions. In February, the Yazidis art will be exhibited in Conflict Zone: Bridging Communities through Printmaking at Brookhaven College in Dallas through March 12th. Willis will give a lecture there on “Art and Empathy” during the Southern Graphics Council annual printmaking conference.
More info at: www.nancywillis.com/conflict-zone
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