Nancy VanKanegan
Chicago, IL
Visual Art
After being raised in a big family in a small town in northern Illinois, Nancy VanKanegan earned a BFA from Illinois Wesleyan University, and an MA in Interdisciplinary Arts and Education from Columbia College Chicago.
Spending almost a decade in Houston, Texas allowed her to easily travel through the SW U.S. and Mexico. In Houston she worked with theaters and dancers on and off the stage, began her teaching career, and exhibited and performed in and around artist run spaces.
Back to Chicago to raise her children, she worked with Art Resources in Teaching travelling to CPS schools around Chicago teaching art, often in partnership with the Art Institute of Chicago, Museum of Contemporary Art and the Field Museum. Yoga was always a part of her life and soon was added to her teaching repertoire.
Her multi-disciplinary art involves making and doing inspired by dreams, travels and yoga. These works address personal and social enigmas and narratives derived from myth, legend and ritual as they weave into contemporary life. She has exhibited and performed locally, nationally and internationally. At present she teaches art and yoga courses at Columbia College, Northeastern Illinois University and DePaul University.
My art works address personal and social enigmas and narratives derived from myth, legend and ritual as they weave into contemporary life.
Materials shift as the stories form. Living in Chicago, Illinois, has gives her access to the amazing Lake Michigan and northern Illinois wetlands and forests to observe nature. Friends and neighbors from around the world share colorful journeys, foods, sounds and lives. Dreams, yoga, meditation, and intuition are her guides.
Continually seeking the marvelous, her response is to combine and construct, in search of beauty, humor and delight.