Nick Ryan Gallery presents a solo exhibition by Massachusetts based painter Galen Cheney.
Galen Cheney is a painter’s painter. Her formal art education began at Mount Holyoke College and continued at the Maryland Institute College of Art, where she received her MFA and was mentored by Grace Hartigan, Hermine Ford, and Salvatore Scarpitta, among other influential artists.
Three decades into her career, Cheney continues to push herself and her work with honesty, commitment, and fearlessness. Deeply engaged in her creative process, she approaches painting as a physical and immersive act. Her richly layered canvases reflect an ongoing exploration of materiality, abstraction, and the psychological terrain that underlies her practice.
Born in Los Angeles and widely traveled, Cheney has spent most of her life in New England, where she feels a profound connection to the land, its history, and its centuries-old architecture. A childhood trip to Europe sparked an enduring fascination with ancient civilizations. Alongside this affinity for the ancient world, she feels the gravitational pull of contemporary urban life—its grit, noise, and neon graffiti—as well as a deep connection to the legacy of mid-century Abstract Expressionism. Synthesizing these influences, she creates work that is layered, complex, and distinctly her own.
Her paintings have been widely exhibited and collected throughout the United States and internationally in Europe, China, Canada, and the United Kingdom. She was featured in New American Paintings (Vol. 86) and was nominated for a grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation. Residencies and fellowships include the Millay Colony for the Arts, MASS MoCA, Vermont Studio Center, Saint-Gaudens National Historical Park, and Da Wang Culture Highland.
Cheney lives and works in North Adams, in the Berkshire Mountains.
