About Nancy Goldring
Born 1945. Nancy Goldring is an American photographer, visual artist and graphic artist.
Nancy Goldring (born 1945) is an American artist. Her art practice combines graphic, photographic, and projected material, presented as a non-narrative series of images that she calls "foto-projections." Goldring currently lives and works in New York City, and is a professor emerita, Montclair State University.
Early life and education Goldring grew up in University City, Missouri. She was educated at University City High School, received a BA in Art History at Smith College, and an MA in Fine Art at NYU. She received her first Fulbright Grant to Italy immediately following Smith College.
Work While a graduate student, she was a co-founder of Sculpture in the Environment (SITE), an organization of artists dedicated to developing public art projects. After leaving SITE she began developing her own work, and continued to write about public sculpture. Together with architects Michael Webb of Archigram and Giuliano Fiorenzoli she collaborated on an exhibition, Image of the Home at the Institute for Architecture and Urban Studies in New York City.
Goldring's work incorporates drawing, paper models, photography, and slide projection. Photos are layered like collages and eventually flattened into a final image, evocative of layers of archeological excavation. There is a focus on travel and memory and the final pieces are sometimes shown as large slide projection installations.
Her archive is held by the Smithsonian Institution.
In 2020, she produced an exhibition, “Reflessi di Storia,” as a corporate commission for CFT International Headquarters in Parma, Italy. It remains on permanent view.
Collaborations Nancy Goldring has worked on numerous collaborations including: SITE Image of the Home with Giuliano Fiorenzoli, and Michael Webb Aureola with Juan Downey, Giuliano Fiorenzoli, and Michael Webb Stage set design with Ze'Eva Cohen, "Ode"
Exhibitions Nancy Goldring's work has been shown primarily in the USA, but she has also exhibited in countries such as Italy, India, Japan, Sweden and Czech Republic. A selection of notable individual exhibitions includes: Reflessi di Storia CFT Collection, Permanent exhibition, Parma, Italy from Dec. 2019 Photographic work by Nancy Goldring, Carrie Haddad Gallery, Hudson, New York, Sept-Nov. 2018 Projections: Place without Description, Devi Art Foundation, Sarai Center for Developing Studies, Delhi, 2012-2013 Vanishing Points (Punti di Fuga), The Monitor Space, Casa di Architettura, Rome, Apr. 2012; Galleria Martini & Ronchetti, Genoa, Italy, Sept. - Oct. 2013 Palimpsest, Gallery 138, New York City, Mar. 2006 Palinsesto, Palazzo Pigorini, Parma, Italy, 2005, catalog with essays by David Levi Strauss Legend, Lyman Allen Museum, New London, CT, 2002 Sites and Sets, Baruch College, New York, 2001 Distillations, Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona Beach, FL, 2000 Foto-Projections, Hampshire College, Amherst, MA, 1993 Images of Myanmar: Inle Lake and Pagan, Arts for Transit, sponsored by MTA, Grand Central Station, New York, 1992 Studio on Stromboli, Mississippi Museum of Art, The Open Gallery, Jackson, MS, 1983 Drawings with Foto-Projections, The Herzliya Museum, The American Cultural Center of Tel Aviv, 1981-1983 Trepidation of the Spheres: Drawings with Foto-Projections, Camera Club, New York, 1981 Drawings with Foto-Projections, SOHO 20, New York, 1980 Nancy Goldring: Drawings, Comfort Gallery, Haverford College, Haverford, PA, 1976 Goldring has also participated in a large number of group exhibitions, including: Classical Mythology in Modern and Contemporary Art, William Benton Museum of Art, CT, 2012 Everywhere/Nowhere, The Spiritual Temperament in Current American Art, Siri Fort Auditorium, New Delhi, India, 2009 New York New York, Smith College Museum of Art, 2005 Waking Dreams, University of Virginia Art Museum, Charlottesville, VA, 2004 Fresh Work 2, Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona Beach, FL, 1998 New in the Nineties, Katonah Museum, Katonah, NY, 1996 Ellis Island: Echoes From a Nation's Past, Aperture Foundation, New York, 1989; Palazzo Cini, Ferrara, Italy, 1993 Sequence (Con) Sequence, Bard College, Annandale on Hudson, New York, 1989. Photography of Invention: Pictures of the Eighties, National Museum of American Art, Washington D.C., 1989 Photography on the Edge, Haggarty Museum of Art, Milwaukee, WI, 1988
Collections Goldring's work can be found in more than 30 public collections around the world, including:
Allen Memorial Museum, Oberlin, Ohio Archivio del Comune di Parma, Italy Baruch College, New York Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris, France Bayley Museum, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, VA George Eastman House, Rochester, NY Harry Ransom Center for the Humanities, Austin, TX Houston Museum of Fine Arts International Center of Photography, New York International Centre for Photography, Bombay, India Padiglione d'Arte Contemporanea, Milan, Italy Polaroid Corporation, Westlicht Museum, Vienna, Austria Smith College Art Museum, Northampton, Massachusetts Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona Beach FL St. Louis Art Museum William Benton Museum of Art, Storrs, CT
Publications Distillations: Nancy Goldring Drawings and Foto-Projections 1971-2021 (Goff ORO Editions, 2022) Shadow’s Shadow: Shadow of a Doubt, Precog Magazine, Volume 6, 2022 Michael Taussig interview with Nancy Goldring, November Magazine, Volume 1, August 2021 The Clumsy Ark, (Sprachlichter: 2020) Shadows’ Shadows, (Metambesen: 2020) School of Nite, Peter Lamborn Wilson and Nancy Goldring (Spuyten Duyvil Press: Jan 2016) Putting Yourself in a Place Where Grace can Flow to You, The Brooklyn Rail, Feb 5, 2015 Occupy: 3 Inquiries into Disobedience, Michael Taussig, Photographs by Nancy Goldring, (Chicago University Press, April 2013) Reviews, The Architects Newspaper, 2009-2018 Nancy Goldring on Walls: Enrichment and Ornamentation Reanimation Library Sep, 2012 Nancy Goldring: Punti di fuga, altri paesaggi, Nancy Goldring, Paolo Barbaro, Michael Taussig, and Carlo Vannicola (Il Geko Edizioni, 2012) On Why Artists Loved Leo Steinberg, The Brooklyn Rail, April 2011 Palimpsest: fotografie di Nancy Goldring, Nancy Goldring, David Levi Strauss, Paolo Barbaro (Gabriele Mazzotta, 2005) Distillations, Nancy Goldring, Alison Divine Nordstrom, and Ellen Handy, (Southeast Museum of Photography, Daytona Beach Community College, 2000) Dream Stills, Avant Garde: Journal of Architecture and Aesthetics, University of CO, September 1993 Imagining Egypt, Avant Garde: Journal of Architecture and Aesthetics, University of CO, July 1991
Recognition Goldring has been the recipient of awards and grants from such institutions as the Joan Mitchell Foundation, the American Institute of Architecture, New York Foundation for the Arts, New York State Council on the Arts, and the Santa Fe Art Institute. She has received multiple Fulbright Awards to Italy, Sri Lanka, and India, as well as awards from Montclair State University.
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Important facts
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Frequently asked questions
Who is Nancy Goldring?
Visual artist
When was Nancy Goldring born?
Nancy Goldring was born on 25 January 1945 in Oak Ridge.
What is Nancy Goldring's occupation?
Nancy Goldring is a photographer, visual artist and graphic artist.
What nationality is Nancy Goldring?
Nancy Goldring is American.
Sources & further reading
Cite this page
APA: Biography.guide. (2026). Nancy Goldring. https://biography.guide/nancy-goldring/
MLA: "Nancy Goldring." Biography.guide, https://biography.guide/nancy-goldring/.
Chicago: "Nancy Goldring." Biography.guide. https://biography.guide/nancy-goldring/.
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