Amon Carter 2022 Community Artist
Central Track
Rachel Nash sits in a black, mesh-backed computer chair, leaning her weight on the glass table in front of her. Behind her is a wall built of exposed peach-colored brickwork where her paintings hang on display. She is wearing a simple gray dress with black, low-top converse... More of the article here.
DailyCandy
Woman Behind the Art: Rachel Nash
Nine things to know about this gallery gal
By Whitney C. Harris
When a 28-year-old becomes a licensed professional counselor and registered art therapist and opens a gallery in Deep Ellum, you begin to wonder what the frick you’ve been doing all your life. But Rachel Nash is one lady too sweet to spite.
The SMU grad has embarked on an adventure most of us only dream of — starting her own business — and is doing it on her own terms. Rachel Nash Gallery opened earlier this month, and the mission is twofold: The front half of her 2,200-square-foot space is dedicated to showing work from emerging artists; the back half acts as an art therapy studio for both children and adults.
It’s hard not to root for someone hoping to do good for the community while supporting local art underdogs. But what else makes Nash likable? Here are nine more reasons we want to be her gal pal.
1. The idea to open a gallery sparked when a friend asked her where he could get a piece of art to hang above his fireplace.
2. She had no idea what to tell him.
3. So she opened a gallery for beginners, where artists can learn to show their works and the rest of us can learn to buy art.
4. The movable walls her father designed for the gallery are so big they’ll have to be deconstructed if she ever leaves the building.
5. Nash is originally from Oklahoma City. After attending college in Dallas and grad school in Chicago, she worked in Fort Worth for a few years, then found her way back to Big D.
6. She’s been a fan of Cy Twombly since she encountered his work in Chicago.
7. Her first exhibit, titled Color | Gray, came to her in a dream about a red and green painting. She started playing with complementary colors and adding white to create striking grays.
8. Nash is primarily an oil painter. She really likes working on portraits of strangers.
9. Her favorite restaurant is FT33, where she once ate a steak that tasted like blueberry cake.
How sweet is that?
Rachel Nash Gallery, 2646 Main Street (972-863-3909 or rachelnashgallery.com).
Art House Dallas
RACHEL NASH | ARTIST, ART THERAPIST, AND FOUNDER, RACHEL NASH GALLERY
FEATURED ARTIST | JANUARY 2014
Age: 28
Favorite Dallas hangout: Legal Grounds for their Prom Cakes and Old Monk for their mussels.
Favorite Dallas music venue: The Granada
Bio: Rachel is a native of Oklahoma City and came to Dallas to study art, art history, and psychology at Southern Methodist University. It was then her dream to open an art gallery connected to an art therapy studio emerged. After graduating from SMU, Rachel moved to Chicago to advance her education and pursue a Master of Arts in Art Therapy from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Rachel returned to Dallas in 2010 and began working as an art therapist at The Art Station, a non-profit art therapy clinic in Fort Worth. During her three years at The Art Station, Rachel counseled adults and children in both group and individual settings, incorporating art making into the therapy to help people process through life's challenges along the way. During her time at the Art Station, Rachel attained her certifications as both a Licensed Professional Counselor and a Registered Art Therapist.
