Exhibition: Nansi T. Lent “A Thread of Longing: Works from 1976-2026”

A Thread of Longing brings together approximately 20 works by Nansi T. Lent spanning over 50 years, from 1974 to the present. The exhibition traces a continuing emotional and artistic trajectory: from early figurative and narrative works rooted in family, memory, world events, and human attachment to recent abstractions exploring prayer, self-talk, and the persistent search for connection and meaning. Across the decades, the underlying impulse remains, even as Lent's visual language changes. Figures gradually recede; tally marks, repeated gestures, glyphs, layered color, and asemic (or illegible) writing take their place. Longing becomes less a subject depicted than a force enacted through repetition: an attempt to speak beyond words, count what cannot be measured, and give visible form to inner experience. What begins as an effort to portray emotional experience evolves into an abstract, contemplative practice. A Thread of Longing asks not whether longing can be resolved, but what it can reveal—and what new forms it may call into being. About the artist: Based in Rhinebeck, NY, Nansi T. Lent holds a BA in Studio Art from Boston College and an MA in Visual Arts Administration from New York University. Her work has appeared in more than 90 exhibitions throughout the Northeast and beyond in the last decade. In 2018 she founded Womenswork.art in Poughkeepsie, NY, and has served on the boards of the National Association of Women Artists and the Woodstock Artists Association and Museum, participated in the Catwalk Art Residency and Openings, and curated and juried numerous exhibitions. Her work is held in several private collections both in the U.S. and abroad.