2008 Knox Graduate Showcases Paintings at The Box

By Rana Tahir ‘13

As a Knox College student, Gaia Nardie-Warner "was always hungry," Knox Art Professor Lynette Lombard reminisced as she spoke at the opening reception for an exhibition of Nardie-Warner's art.

"She made collages, sculptures, and drawings, but would always end up covered in paint anyway," Lombard said.

Nardie-Warner, a 2008 Knox graduate, returned to her alma mater to showcase her recent work at The Box, 306 East Simmons Street. The opening event attracted Knox students, faculty, and other members of the Galesburg community.

Her exhibition runs through October 7 at The Box.

At Knox, Nardie-Warner graduated cum laude with a major in studio art and a minor in art history. She also earned a master of fine arts degree in visual arts from the College of Fine Arts at Boston University.

Lombard worked closely with Nardie-Warner when she was a Knox student.

"She came in with this extraordinary feeling of paint, and went beyond that in order to work with an idea, how you would translate it," Lombard said.

Nardie-Warner thanked Knox College for allowing her to come back and share her work, and she thanked Knox professors for their influence on her education -- both "while at Knox, and now that I'm away."

Using projection slides, Nardie-Warner displayed a series of paintings to show her evolution as an artist.

At Knox, Nardie-Warner focused on the relationship between clothing and women throughout art history.

She also reflected on the time she spent painting in the Auxiliary Gym at Knox. "I would hear the dancers running across the room," she said.

From that experience, Nardie-Warner became fascinated with women's costume.

Some of the works that Nardie-Warner started at Knox evolved during her MFA program. She painted a series of 6 ½-foot-tall and 7-foot-tall paintings that heavily focused on identity and identity building.

"I would study how people carried themselves, the nail polish they wore, or the way they chewed their gum. It might sound silly, but they are claiming their identity," she said.

While in graduate school, Nardie-Warner traveled to a small town in Guatemala, where she saw women working and taking on the role of household provider.

Nardie-Warner described them as "off the conventional grid," meaning they were out of the ordinary in their environment. This sparked Nardie-Warner to look for the grid -- or conventionality -- in her own life and in art history.

This, in turn, led her to create more artwork.

Knox College senior Rebecca Ott, who is majoring in studio art, said Nardie-Warner's presentation was enlightening.

"She showed her thought process in a visual way," said Ott, who is from West Des Moines, Iowa. "And the layering of her paintings, all these different layers, you can kind of see through them."

Hanna Tochtrop, a Knox sophomore from Northglenn, Colorado, added: "It was great to see someone from Knox succeeding in the art world."

Photos by Kelly Eigenberger '13