The paintings in Saucy are feminist acts of rebellion. Instead of images offering figures of painted beauty, Ring offers the beauty of paint. They unapologetically provoke, existing at the intersection of repulsion and attraction. With copyright-free photographs online as the starting point, Ring subverts each image to empower as a response to repression.

While many younger generations of women may not personally remember older eras in history with limited roles for women, strong recent changes in policy that affect women, such as the overturning of Roe v. Wade, foretell a resurgence in repressive ideology and leadership. As someone who does remember, Ring presents these mediated images now as questions and challenges. One of the major themes in her work is the idea of the vast within the intimate moment.

With women’s rights challenged every day, the women in her paintings cook, clean, and carry on, ever conscious of the male gaze in the small moments of their everyday lives. Something is not all sweetly dolled up in demure dresses, however, in the land of domestic bliss.

Nan Ring is a visual artist, poet, and author. Ring received a Monmouth Museum Juror’s Award in their Annual Juried Exhibition, 2025, Vermont Studio Center Artist’s Fellowship Award, the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation/NEA Fellowship Award, and a New York Foundation for the Arts Artists’ Fellowship Award. She has been awarded numerous artist-in-residencies, including Hambidge, I-Park, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Ucross Foundation, Djerrassi, and Millay Arts, among others. Her national art exhibitions include The Painting Center, NYC, Susan Eley Gallery, Hudson, NY, and 14C Art Fair, NJ, among others.

Her poetry has been published on Gray Sparrow Press and About Place Journal, and will appear in the forthcoming "The Color Wheel" anthology from Terrapin Books. She was a finalist for the Barbara Deming Fund for Women Grant in Poetry, 2025. Ring wrote and illustrated the critically acclaimed memoir, Walking On Walnuts, Bantam, 1996. She earned her MFA in Painting from The University of the Arts, PA, and her BFA in Studio Art from Syracuse University School of Visual and Performing Arts. She is co-director of the Hostetter Gallery in Basking Ridge, N.J.