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Nancy Edell
Nancy Edell (November 12, 1942 - June 9, 2005) was born in Omaha, NB and earned her BFA at the University of Omaha from 1961 to 1964. She studied film-making at the University of Bristol, England from 1968 to 1969. From 1969 to the late 70s she worked in Winnipeg, MB, Canada, as an animator. Screened at film festivals in places such as Edinburgh, Oberhausen, Amsterdam, Chicago, Toronto, and Montreal, her films won prizes and she was awarded commissions from the BBC & CBC. While working as an animator, Edell also continued to work in other media, primarily printmaking.

In 1980 she moved to Halifax, NS, Canada, becoming a Canadian citizen in 1981. From 1982 until her death she was an adjunct professor at NSCAD University (Nova Scotia College of Art and Design). Known for her work in animation, drawing, printmaking and painting, her move to Nova Scotia would see a new development in her work. Edell began incorporating traditional rag rug hooking into her art practice and became one of several female artists, including Joyce Wieland, Kate Walker, and Judy Chicago who were using traditional domestic craft to produce works of contemporary art. Her work has been described as "a melange of art historical references, a dreamlike quality, unabashed sexuality, journeys, and a subversive wit." In the 1980s, Edell produced her "Home Entertainment" and "Boudoir" series; the 1990s saw a number of "Paper Doll" works, as well as her series "Art Nuns". "Art Nuns" presents the notion of art replacing religion in a secular culture. Female figures in Edell's work may be read as avatars, representing aspects of self in dream-like settings, at times dark and at others,  spiritedly playful. "Subject matter: Contemporary Painting and Sculpture in Nova Scotia" described Edell's work: ''While informed by both feminism and the spiritual, however, Edell's art firmly resists a reading in terms of feminist spirituality. Its mode is irony, not piety, whether religious or political. Although they represent human experience in mythic form, her wonderful monsters, at once sacred and profane, do not represent human beings as we might wish to be, but as we are, in all our splendid confusion, and are that much more convincing as          archetypes.''

In the late 1990s, woodcuts, monotypes, and drawings would dominate her practice, although she did continue to work with hooked rugs.

Selected Exhibitions

 * 2005: Moral Fibre: Engaged Works in Textile Media, Mount Saint Vincent University Art Gallery, Halifax, N.S.
 * 2004: Nancy Edell : Selected Works, 1980-2004, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, N.S.
 * 1998-99: Bricabra, touring exhibition, Dalhousie University Art Gallery, Halifax NS; Art Gallery of Southwestern Manitoba, Brandon; Museum of Textiles, Toronto ON; Confederation Centre, Charlottetown PEI
 * 1992: Subject / Matter: Contemporary Painting and Sculpture in Nova Scotia, Halifax, N.S.
 * 1991-1993: Art Nuns: Recent Work by Nancy Edell, touring exhibition, Art Gallery of Nova Scotia, Halifax, N.S.; Sir Wilfred Grenfell College Art Gallery, Memorial University of Newfoundland, Corner Brook, NFLD; Beaverbrook Art Gallery, Fredericton, N.B.; Owens Art Gallery, Mount Allison University, Sackville, N.B.; Acadia University Art Gallery, Wolfville, N.S.