Radical Quiet: Contemporary Drawings of Nature by Victoria Elbroch, Nancy Friese, and Margot Glass

Opening August 5, 2026 in the Concourse Gallery, Radical Quiet features three contemporary New England artists who engage with the landscape as a vital source of inspiration and inquiry: Victoria Elbroch, Nancy Friese, and Margot Glass.

Category: New England, Contemporary, Nature

Left: Margot Glass, Goldthread #1 (Forest Floor), 2024, Courtesy of Garvey|Simon, NY, Photography courtesy of Jim Gipe, Pivot Media

Center: Victoria Elbroch, Second Coming, 2025, Courtesy of Victoria Elbroch, ME, Photograph courtesy of Lawrence Elbroch

Right: Nancy Friese, Way to the Sea, 2012, Courtesy of Cade Tompkins Projects, RI

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About the exhibition

Discover three acclaimed contemporary artists who draw inspiration from the natural world and their New England roots. With a profound respect for the nature and drawing as their chosen mode of expression, Margot Glass, Victoria Elbroch, and Nancy Friese invite us to slow down, look closely, and reflect on the beauty that surrounds us.

Materials, Medium, and Process

Inspired by direct observation, Glass, Elbroch, and Friese use watercolor, pen and ink, and silver- or gold-point drawing to depict the natural world.

Radical Quiet: Contemporary Drawings of Nature by Victoria Elbroch, Nancy Friese, and Margot Glass is on view from August 5, 2026 through January 9, 2027.

This exhibition is generously supported by Betsy Holmes.

Victoria Elbroch, Introspection, 2024, Courtesy of Victoria Elbroch, ME, Photograph courtesy of Lawrence Elbroch

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About the artists

Victoria Elbroch draws inspiration from ancient trees, capturing their immense scale and enduring presence. Her work is based on research and extended stays at historic sites in New England and Great Britain, where she closely studies and sketches these remarkable trees in great detail. Elbroch’s drawings often look upward into towering canopies while also revealing the intricate root systems that anchor and sustain each tree. Through meticulous observation, she creates dramatic compositions that evoke the sublime power and timelessness of nature.

Nancy Friese paints wide, open landscapes that invite viewers to experience the feeling of moving through nature. Her expansive compositions are created from many small touches of fluid color, giving her work a vibrant, impressionistic quality. Working directly outdoors, Friese pushes the traditions of plein air painting by creating large-scale works on paper.

Her monumental watercolors challenge long-held assumptions that watercolor is only suited to small, delicate works or amateur practice. Instead, Friese demonstrates the medium’s power, scale, and expressive potential.

Margot Glass draws inspiration from humble flowers, weeds, and insects, focusing close attention on living forms that are often overlooked. Through detailed botanical studies made with traditional materials such as pen, brush and ink, silverpoint, and goldpoint, she reveals the beauty and individuality of these everyday subjects. These precise and permanent drawing techniques require exceptional control, with every mark made intentionally. Glass’s work highlights the important role that even the smallest plants and insects play in our ecosystem, encouraging greater care, respect, and appreciation for the natural world.

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