Nancy Newman Rice was born in New York City and was educated at Cornell University and at Washington University, where she earned a BFA with honors and an MFA. She has received awards that include a National Endowment for the Arts/MMA Fellowship for painting, a residency at the Cité des Beaux Arts Internationales and nominations for a Tiffany Award and an AVA Award in the Visual Arts.

"My influences include the paintings of Portuguese artist, Maria Helena Viera da Silva, architectural drawings, the girders of anticipated buildings and especially the scaffolding that often fills those spaces. They are skeletons, place holders, and evidence of geometry that is the armature of experience... My most recent work consists of complex patterns derived from the reflections and shadows associated with the built environment. The sharp diagonal lines and shapes produce an inherent dystopian effect, which alludes to a sense of moral disorder, anxiety and uncertainty. But light penetrates the overlapping shards and provides a subtle path through it." -Artist Statement