My practice is an exploration of time as both subject and material. Each painting emerges through a slow, meditative process of layering translucent veils of paint—thin films of colour laid down, one after another, over many hours, weeks and even months. These layers are not merely formal; they are temporal. They hold the presence of multiple ‘now’ moments, suspended across a surface that quietly documents their accumulation.
I approach the substrate as a container of time—a space where stillness and motion can coexist. The subtle gradations and tonal shifts in my work invite the viewer to look slowly, to notice the minor changes, the “thin veils” that, as curator James Gatt describes, “map multiple present times.” This is a kind of visual thinking—a durational, quiet dialogue between visibility and disappearance, between presence and memory.
There is a kind of pentimento in the work: traces of earlier layers remain visible beneath the surface, like a history that cannot be fully erased. These translucent veils do not obscure; they echo. They make space for silence, stillness, and reflection. The resulting fields of colour hover between solidity and dissolution, offering viewers not a fixed image, but a condition—a space to be experienced rather than immediately understood.
My work does not seek resolution.It embraces the unresolved, the barely visible, and the in-between. Painting, for me, is not a record of an image but a record of time passing—layer upon layer, breath upon breath. My hope is that each painting acts as a tangible and immersive experience that resonates with the viewer on a deeply emotional and intellectual level.
Nancy Constandelia is an artist based in Sydney (Gadigal). She graduated with a Master of Fine Art with Excellence in Painting from UNSW Art,Design & Architecture (UNSWADA. Formerly UNSW College of Fine Arts). She has exhibited in solo and group exhibitions both in Australia and overseas including Paris,London,Hong Kong and New Zealand.
Constandelia has been a finalist in several prestigious awards including the Mosman Art Prize, the Grace Cossington Biennial Art Award, the Waverley Art Prize (won Best Abstract Painting in 2014), the Blake Prize, Fisher’s Ghost Art Prize, and the Geelong Contemporary Art Prize. Her work has been featured in various art publications including Artists Profile and Art Collector.
Constandelia has been a resident at the prestigious Cite Internationale des Arts in Paris, France, granted by the Art Gallery of NSW, and was also a resident of the highly competitive Artist in Residence program at Bundanon granted by Bundanon Trust.
Constandelia’s work has been acquired by significant private collections both in Australia and internationally, including the Stevenson Collection and the Mindaroo Foundation.
