Artist Bio
George Nama’s birthplace was Homestead, across the river from Pittsburgh, which in the early 1950s witnessed an intensively creative moment with a vibrant jazz scene and the Carnegie International exhibitions. Nama was a keen recorder of this stimulating environment as one can see in his evocative cityscapes.
He studied at Carnegie Mellon University (CIT) with undergraduate and graduate degrees. In the 1960s Nama worked at William Stanley Hayter’s influential Atelier 17 in Paris, where he was part of an international artistic circle. In 1981 he was elected to the National Academy of Design, New York. He was an influential teacher of draftsmanship and printmaking, while continuing to develop his own abstract take on natural forms.
Already involved with poets and writers since the early 1960s, Nama collaborated in 1976 with his friend the French poet and art historian Yves Bonnefoy, on artist’s books. This in turn fostered a series of artist’s books and exhibitions with Alfred Brendel and Charles Simic.
During his long career, Nama has been represented in numerous exhibitions, galleries and public collections, such as The Morgan Library, the Boston Athenaeum, The Metropolitan Museum, the Brooklyn Museum and the Carnegie Institute. He has also been included in the distinguished international art fairs at Maastricht and the Salon de Dessin in Paris.
His latest work is The Liberator, a collaboration with his longtime friend the late writer/director George Romero.