Heads Above: Nancy Josephson

‘I have spent large portions of my life embellishing my surroundings. Integrating the spiritual and the form and having those things talk to one another is central to my work.’ - Nancy Josephson

Nancy Josephson creates intricate sculptures and decorative objects inspired by her spiritual affiliation with Haitian Vodou traditions.

By bringing non-traditional materials into a gallery space, she explores the relationship between art and craft and its transformative effect on everyday objects and our expectations of utility. In this particular exhibition, wild animals are fully domesticated, re-imagined as helpers to humans.

From shimmering birds to monkey chandeliers and deer sconces complete with flowers and lights, Josephson celebrates the beauty of sacred objects. Drawing on Haitian practices of creating beadwork flags and banners as a mark of devotion to Iwa, the spirits of the Vodou pantheon, her works combine the sacred and secular in one.  

Josephson was initiated as a Vodou Priestess in 2012. This is her first exhibition with the Rebecca Hossack Art Gallery in London, following an exhibition at the gallery’s New York location in Mott Street earlier this year.