ARTIST STATEMENT
My oil paintings marry visual art with literary expression, exploring relationships and emotions in an honest and unashamed way. My monochromatic, realistic figures combine with bright bold text to investigate the energy and ecstasy of relationships, along with the often inevitable regret, loss, and loneliness.
I paint my subjects in natural candid moments, but as if they are on a brightly lit stage. I’m interested in mood and posture, the play of light on their skin and clothes, and the shape of their shadows. The colorful words, gently colliding with the monochromatic people, add a layer of narrative, context, feelings and cultural references. I strive to create something that connects us more deeply to ourselves and to one another.
My current series of paintings is called “My Lisas,” and they are about coming-of age friendships. The young women I depict exist in that beautiful, vulnerable and strange moment between youth and adulthood. I leverage the powerful memories evoked by this time in my life.
The figures are inspired by photos I take at music festivals. Within the paintings are short personal essays I have written about close friends who are no longer in my life. I write about people who enhanced or complicated my life, challenged or completed me for a time. I explore how these special friendships truly felt and why they end.
I hope these paintings evoke a sense of recognition in viewers, leading them to reflect on the impact of friends they’ve had who are no longer in their lives.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
PōCHIS is a Chicago based visual artist, with a studio in Albany Park. For more than two decades, she ran the Pochis Bank Art Studio (www.nancypochisbank.com), a full-service art studio creating custom murals and other artwork for unique locations, products and special events.
In 2022 she stepped away from commercial art installation, and turned toward creating her own series of oil paintings. PōCHIS debuted her first series of 9 paintings, “My Lisas,” in April 2024 at the Spring One of a Kind Art Fair at Chicago’s Merchandise Mart. Her work was included in the recent “Girlfriends” exhibition at Woman Made Gallery (Chicago).
PōCHIS was selected by the Chicago CTA and Lakeview-Roscoe Village Chamber of Commerce to create 3 works of public art based on her “My Lisas” series of paintings, as part of their Lowline Restoration Project.
© PōCHIS