Nancy Azara + Darla Bjork | Venice, ITALY: CASTELLO 925 · Fondamenta San Giuseppe 925
Together for over 40 years, Nancy Azara and Darla Bjork were a couple during a transitional time in American history, from a barely tolerated union in the 80s through an official recognition of their relationship in 2011, when gay marriage finally became legal in New York State.
Nancy Azara + Darla Bjork | Crossing Over with sculptured wall work, prints and drawings by the late Nancy Azara and encaustic paintings and drawings by Darla Bjork, at Castello 925, Fondamenta San Giuseppe 925, Venice, Italy. 29 July to 20 September, 2026.
NANCY AZARA + DARLA BJORK | Crossing Over is an exhibition featuring the sculptures, paintings, and prints of the late feminist artist Nancy Azara (1930-2024), and encaustic paintings and drawings by her widow, Darla Bjork. Although their artworks were inspired by different sources (Azara explored matriarchal archetypes while Bjork mined the psyche), both artists were neo-expressionists and emphasized the power of the gesture in their mark-making.
Together for over 40 years, Nancy Azara and Darla Bjork were a couple during a transitional time in American history, from a barely tolerated union in the 80s through an official recognition of their relationship in 2011, when gay marriage finally became legal in New York State. The artists were both part of the New York Feminist Art Institute, an organization that grew out of the feminist movement of the 1970s, providing art and writing classes taught by women for women. This exhibition was curated by Jen Dragon and Fanny Perez.
About Nancy Azara:
Nancy Azara was an artist and feminist educator best known for her large-scale wood sculptures and mixed-media collages. Nancy developed a distinct style of sculpture - found wood, carved, ornamented, and mounted. Instinctive chip carving peels off an outer layer of wood, reaching for an essentialized raw experience of the body, of the limbs, exposing flesh and blood. This work explored life cycles, utilizing the metaphor of a tree for personhood. Egg tempera, often in reds and pinks, and aluminum, palladium, and gold gilding recover these exposed layers, exploring folkloric stories of women’s roles, goddess imagery, ancient symbols, mystic spiritual traditions, and affirmation of the female self.
About Darla Bjork:
Darla Bjork is an artist who, early on, channeled her creative energy into her career as a psychiatrist in NYC. After some early explorations in stone sculpture, she turned her attention to painting in 1977. Culled from years of work as a psychiatrist, Bjork's imagery is shaped by the driving forces of the human psyche: passion and pain. Her most recent paintings are created with oil stick on wood panels of varying sizes, often layered and scraped to achieve richness and vitality while digging beneath the surface to reveal what is hidden. This layered technique invites the observer to explore the depths of shifting perspectives and consider the personal experience of identity. Uniting her career as a psychiatrist with her art practice, Darla Bjork seeks to reveal the hidden layers of living a human life.
About the Curators:
For over 35 years, Jen Dragon has been involved with art, artists, and the arts community as a curator, gallerist, art writer, exhibitions strategist, and art advisor. Ms. Dragon has participated in numerous community-based arts programs, including curation for International Sculpture Day, Saugerties (2017–19), Kaatsbaan Cultural Park (2021–23), Byrdcliffe Biennial Sculpture Park (2025), and co-curation for the 2026 Inaugural Woodstock Artist Association & Museum Sculpture Park. Jen Dragon’s latest curatorial projects are currently installed at The Richards Gallery at Opus 40 and Castello 925 Gallery in Venice, Italy, during the 61st Venice Biennale.
Fanny Pérez Gutiérrez is an interdisciplinary artist whose work explores the body as a primary site of knowledge, perception, and transformation. Her practice combines ritual, somatic methods, and visionary movement to create participatory environments that cultivate presence, emotional regulation, and collective coherence. Drawing on over 15 years of experience in arts and cultural production, she has shaped performance programming and curated cultural events across festivals, immersive gatherings, and cultural institutions — while also performing and collaborating within the work of fellow artists at venues including La Biennale di Venezia, REDCAT, Judson Church, Grace Exhibition Space, Persian Parade NYC, and cultural organizations across Mexico.
She is the founder of Alter, a platform at the intersection of psychedelic art, expanded states of consciousness, and collective re-imagining.
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Nancy AzaraBlue Stem with Two Panels, 2013mixed media on vellum89 x 24 in -
Nancy AzaraCentral Leaves with Blue, 2013mixed media on vellum91 x 24 in
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Nancy AzaraChanges, 2015-2016carved and painted wood * some with gold leaf/ aluminum leaf/ encaustic12' x 12' panels
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Nancy AzaraGolden Treasures 10, 2016monoprint on vellum13 x 17
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Nancy AzaraGolden Treasures 16, 2016monoprint on vellum13 x 17
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Nancy AzaraGolden Treasures 17, 2016monoprint on vellum13 x 17
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Nancy AzaraGolden Treasures 4monoprint on vellum13 x 17 in
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Nancy AzaraGolden Treasures 7, 2016monoprint on vellum13 x 17
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Nancy AzaraGolden Treasures 8, 2016monoprint on vellum13 x 17
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Nancy AzaraLeaf Aparition, 2016aquatint on vellum17 x 14 in
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Nancy AzaraLeaves in Shadow, 2016aquatint on vellum17 x 14 in
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Nancy AzaraRed Hand with Four Panels, 2016monoprint on vellum88 x 24 in
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Nancy AzaraRed Twins, 2016etching on vellum13 x 16 in
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Darla BjorkCobalt Haze, 2025encaustic on wood panel14 x 11 in
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Darla BjorkCobalt Yellow Mask, 2025encaustic on wood panel12 x 9 in
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Darla BjorkDoes the Devid Still War Prada?, 2025encaustic on wood panel14 x 11 in
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Darla BjorkDon't Know About You, 2025encaustic on wood panel12 x 9 in
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Darla BjorkGet Your Head Out of the Clouds, 2025encaustic on wood panel12 x 9 in
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Darla BjorkGirl, 2025encaustic on wood panel12 x 9 in
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Darla BjorkSelf Portrait in Yellow, 2024encaustic on wood panel6 x 6 in
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Darla BjorkYellow Mask, 2024encaustic on wood panel6 x 6 in
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Darla BjorkYellow Mask #1, 2025encaustic on wood panel14 x 11 in
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Darla BjorkYellow Mask #3, 2025encaustic on wood panel12 x 9 in
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: Jen Dragon | crosscontemporaryprojects@gmail.com
ENGLISH
CASTELLO 925
Sestiere Castello 925 · Fondamenta San Giuseppe, 30122 · Venice, Italy
Gallery hours: Friday - Sunday, 12 - 5 PM.
Exhibition Dates: JULY 31 - SEPTEMBER 20, 2026
Opening reception: Saturday, AUGUST 1, 17:00 - 19:30 PM
Exhibition website: https://bit.ly/azarabjorkvenice
(VENICE, Italy) - Nancy Azara + Darla Bjork | A Shared Legacy is an exhibition featuring the sculptures, paintings, and prints of the late feminist artist Nancy Azara (1939-2024) and encaustic paintings and drawings by her widow, Darla Bjork. Although their artworks were inspired by different sources (Azara explored matriarchal archetypes while Björk mines the psyche), both artists are neo-expressionists and emphasize the power of the gesture in their mark-making. Together for over 40 years, Nancy Azara and Darla Bjork were a couple during a transitional time in American history, from a barely tolerated union in the 80s through an official recognition of their relationship in 2011, when gay marriage finally became legal in New York State. The artists were both part of the New York Feminist Art Institute, an organization that grew out of the 1970s feminist movement and offered art and writing classes taught by women for women.
This exhibition was curated by Jen Dragon and Fanny Perez.
About Nancy Azara: Nancy Azara was an artist and feminist educator best known for her large-scale wood sculptures and mixed-media collages. Nancy developed a distinct style of sculpture - found wood, carved, ornamented, and mounted. Instinctive chip carving peels off an outer layer of wood, reaching for an essentialized raw experience of the body, of the limbs, exposing flesh and blood. This work explored life cycles, using the metaphor of a tree to represent personhood. Egg tempera, often in reds and pinks, and aluminum, palladium, and metal leaf gilding recover these exposed layers, exploring folkloric stories of women’s roles, goddess imagery, ancient symbols, mystical spiritual traditions, and the affirmation of the female self. Of Italian descent, this artist finds a homecoming for her work and legacy in this exhibition in Venice.
About Darla Bjork: Darla Bjork is an artist who, early on, channeled her creative energy into her career as a psychiatrist in NYC. While her lines and forms often appear simple, there are always formative structures and elements beneath. The layering and depth seem to reflect insights drawn from Darla’s years working in psychiatry. She is an artist whose paintings often reveal the hidden layers of human life.
Darla has had solo exhibits in the United States and Europe. Originally a founding member of Ceres Gallery, a women-run, non-profit collective gallery in downtown Manhattan, she joined SOHO20 Gallery, a women’s collective gallery founded in 1973, where she continues to be a member.
ABOUT CASTELLO 925
Castello 925 is a multi-disciplinary, non-profit gallery that serves as a crucible for the visual arts, literature, and culture. Founded by psychoanalyst Luca Caldironi, Castello 925 explores the origins of creativity with a vibrant program of exhibitions and conversations.
ITALIANO
Date della mostra: 31 LUGLIO - 20 SETTEMBRE 2026
Inaugurazione: sabato, 1 AGOSTO, 17:00 - 19:30
Sito web della mostra: https://bit.ly/azarabjorkvenice
(VENEZIA, Italia) - Nancy Azara + Darla Bjork | A Shared Legacy è una mostra che presenta le sculture, i dipinti e le stampe della compianta artista femminista Nancy Azara (1939-2024), insieme ai dipinti in encausto e ai disegni della sua vedova, Darla Bjork. Sebbene le loro opere siano ispirate a fonti diverse (Azara esplorava gli archetipi matriarcali, mentre Bjork indaga la psiche), entrambe le artiste appartengono al neoespressionismo e sottolineano la forza del gesto nella loro pratica artistica. Compagne per oltre 40 anni, Nancy Azara e Darla Bjork hanno vissuto la loro relazione durante un periodo di transizione nella storia americana: da un'unione appena tollerata negli anni '80 fino al riconoscimento ufficiale della loro relazione nel 2011, quando il matrimonio tra persone dello stesso sesso è diventato finalmente legale nello Stato di New York. Entrambe le artiste hanno fatto parte del New York Feminist Art Institute, un'organizzazione nata dal movimento femminista degli anni '70 che offriva corsi d'arte e scrittura tenuti da donne per le donne.
Questa mostra è stata curata da Jen Dragon e Fanny Perez.
Informazioni su Nancy Azara: Nancy Azara è stata un'artista ed educatrice femminista, nota soprattutto per le sue sculture lignee di grande formato e per i collage in tecnica mista. Nancy ha sviluppato umi no stile scultoreo distintivo: legno di recupero, intagliato, decorato e montato. L'intaglio istintivo rimuove lo strato esterno del legno, cercando un'esperienza essenziale e primordiale del corpo e degli arti, mettendo a nudo la carne e il sangue. Questo lavoro esplora i cicli della vita, utilizzando la metafora dell'albero per rappresentare la persona. La tempera all'uovo, spesso nei toni del rosso e del rosa, insieme alla doratura con foglia di alluminio, palladio e altri metalli, ricopre questi strati esposti, esplorando racconti folklorici sui ruoli delle donne, l'immaginario della dea, antichi simboli, tradizioni spirituali mistiche e l'affermazione del sé femminile. Di origini italiane, questo artista ritrova una sorta di ritorno a casa per la propria opera e la propria eredità in questa mostra a Venezia.
Informazioni su Darla Bjork: Darla Bjork è un'artista che, agli inizi del suo percorso, ha indirizzato la propria energia creativa verso la carriera di psichiatra a New York. Sebbene le sue linee e le sue forme appaiano spesso semplici, sotto la superficie si celano sempre strutture ed elementi fondamentali. Le stratificazioni e la profondità sembrano riflettere le intuizioni maturate nel corso degli anni di lavoro di Darla in psichiatria. È un'artista i cui dipinti spesso rivelano gli strati nascosti della vita umana.
Darla ha tenuto mostre personali negli Stati Uniti e in Europa. Membro fondatore della Ceres Gallery, una galleria collettiva non profit gestita da donne nel centro di Manhattan, è successivamente entrato a far parte della SOHO20 Gallery, una galleria collettiva femminile fondata nel 1973, di cui tuttora è membro.
INFORMAZIONI SU CASTELLO 925
Castello 925 è una galleria multidisciplinare senza scopo di lucro che funge da crocevia per le arti visive, la letteratura e la cultura. Fondata dallo psicoanalista Luca Caldironi, Castello 925 esplora le origini della creatività attraverso un vivace programma di mostre e incontri.
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