Nancy Hilliard Joyce (b. 1972, Greenville, SC) creates from her home studio in Concord, NC. Her work explores time, history, memory, and the natural world, with a particular interest in how time leaves its mark on the things we see, experience, and remember. Working across paper, wood, and canvas, she often layers oils, acrylics, gold leaf, graphite, collage, handmade papers, poetry, sewing, and hand-painted details.
Joyce has exhibited extensively in solo and group exhibitions and completed large-scale commissions for public and private spaces, including Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport, CarolinaEast Medical Center, Mission Health, and the Hilton Columbia Place Hotel. Her work has also appeared in nationally released music projects through collaborations with Crossroads Label Group and Mountain Home Music Company.
In addition to her studio practice, Joyce has curated more than 50 exhibitions, worked as an art consultant for real estate developers, and currently serves as curator of the Omni Grove Park Inn in Asheville, NC. She also teaches art workshops, private lessons and holds a K–12 teaching license and an art therapy practitioner license.
Joyce studied at the Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities, earned a BA in Art History from Wofford College, and an MA in Art Education from the University of New Mexico. She is the author of The Education of Little Me: A Short Memoir Connecting Passion with Purpose. Her work has appeared in Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, Southern Living, The Wall Street Journal, and House & Garden UK.
A longtime supporter of women’s causes and education, Joyce raised funds through her 2015 exhibition Bicyclette, held at the Asheville Art Museum, to deliver more than 250 all-terrain bicycles to young girls in remote regions of Cambodia. She has served on the boards of the Asheville Art Museum, The Governor’s School for the Arts and Humanities Foundation, and the Cabarrus Arts Council. Her paintings are held in private collections and installed in hospitality, corporate, and public spaces worldwide.
Follow her work on Instagram and Facebook at @NancyJoyceArt.
Selected large-scale projects include:
- Fall of 2020: Installation of a custom 8 foot x 4 foot commission painting into a private collection in upstate South Carolina.
- Winter of 2020: Installation of 6 large-scale paintings into Carolina East Medical Center, New Bern, NC
- Fall of 2019: Installation into Mission Health Systems, Asheville, NC
- Fall of 2018: Two, eight-foot commission paintings installed into the Hilton @Columbia Place Hotel.
- Summer of 2018: Published “The Education of Little Me: A Short Memoir Connecting Passion with Purpose”.
- Spring of 2018: Two, fourteen-foot triptych commission pieces installed into the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport.
- Summer 2017: Art Consultant for Greenville, SC’s Downtown @RiverPlace Embassy Suites + installation of “Greenville Roots” painting.
- Fall of 2015: Nancy raised funds from her art show, “Bicyclette”, to travel to remote regions of Cambodia and delivered over 250 all-terrain bicycles to young, underprivileged girls. These bicycles were distributed at a ceremony where Nancy spoke through a translator about the importance of education and self-esteem for young girls.
- 2015 – 2019: Collaboration with Crossroads Label Group and Mountain Home Music Company as a conceptualizer + artist who paints large-scale works that are then spun into CD covers and released on National levels.
- Summer 2015: A permanent installation of her 75″ x 148″ triptych painting in South Carolina’s newest mixed-use hub building called, ONE.
- Summer 2014: Nancy curated an installation for a group of select artists in Western North Carolina. She has several large-scale pieces on the walls of EDISON’S, which is located inside the historic OMNI Grove Park Inn.
- Winter 2014: Nancy partnered with Girls on the Run of Western North Carolina to create a body of work titled, “Thirteen”. This exhibition showcased 13 historical and influential women which included large-scale paintings of Rosa Parks, Annie Oakley, Sacagawea, Amelia Earhart and Joan of Arc, just to name a few.
- Summer of 2014: Nancy created a one-of-a-kind painting for Green Man Brewery in collaboration of Toad the Wet Sprocket which was used for the label of a seasonal, wet-hopped IPA beer.