Nancy Graves (1939–1995) developed a cross-disciplinary practice that merged painting and sculpture through simultaneous experimentation across mediums. Her work from the 1980s embraced spontaneity and unexpected visual relationships, employing a process of loose mapping and esoteric mark-making that combined symbols into mysterious, familiar iconographies. In her paintings, Graves layered cultural microbiota—pointillist profiles of historical figures interlaced with coral configurations and radiographic patterns—creating visual topographies suggesting compressed time and scale as viewed through microscopes or telescopes. Her sculptures embodied surreal amalgamations of quotidian and idiosyncratic forms, merging earthly and mechanical elements. She used lost-wax casting to convert miscellaneous objects—vegetables, rope, flora—into bronze, then combined these with industrial metal readymades like tractor seats and tools, achieving compositions that were simultaneously graceful and impossibly awkward. Graves described her sculptures as "balanced by imbalance," defying gravity visually rather than physically. Her practice was fundamentally rooted in intersections of natural history, ancient and modern culture, paleontology, biology, and linguistics—disciplines that informed her material and thematic approach throughout her career.
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