About Naomi's art

Naomi began painting actively in 2009. Over  the course of the past decade, she has come to focus on  representational  and abstract landscapes. While some of her images are taken from photographs, others are created from her imagination. Naomi has  exhibited in a number of galleries and other venues in the St. Louis  area. In addition, her work has been shown in galleries in St. Louis, Missouri, Louisville, Kentucky, and overseas in Lyon, France. Naomi’s paintings are  held in private collections across the United States as well as in  collections in the Netherlands, Canada, England and Italy.     

Naomi  often works in saturated colors and many of her works, some of which  have had a  special resonance for interior designers and decorators. While she  considers her work fine art, Naomi is not doctrinaire about how it is  viewed or appreciated. She welcomes the opportunity to reach viewers in a  home or a gallery and has worked closely with clients on commissioned  paintings.   

Naomi’s  most recent work has taken her in new interpretive and technical  directions. Still inspired by landscapes, she has developed a more  minimalist (but no less complex) palate that allows her to confront  shadow and light in new ways. Where her earlier work often draws on  clouds, mists, filtered light and soft edges, Naomi’s recent  explorations offer sharp edges and definitive shapes.    These new works focus on  snowy mountain scapes featuring stark contrasts of  the white snow and rocks, contrasts that we often see at the extremes of the  day—sunrise and sunset.   At  the same time, these new works invite the artist and the viewer to  engage with the primary challenge of painting—creating a  three-dimensional world on a two-dimensional surface. Naomi employs  swaths of what appear at a distance to be flat, monochromatic surfaces  to evoke the mystery and majesty of solid mountain peaks and crevasses  lit by equally flat light. Closer inspection reveals detailed brushwork  and layered paint surfaces, carefully and meticulously applied. Like a  monumental mountainside at sunset, Naomi’s new work offers starkly  contrasting fields of blacks, greys and whites built of the smallest of  individual shadows. Some viewers have noted the similarity of these new  works to Chinese or Japanese calligraphy. The shadowed shapes can evoke  calligraphic figures, but the meaning is nature’s own, created by light  and shadow.    

Naomi  has had an active interest in the arts since her childhood but has  pursued a varied professional life. She holds a BA in History and  Russian Area Studies from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and speaks French. Her wide-ranging interests and training allowed  Naomi to work prior to 2009 in a number of fields including web design,  political consultancy and ESL education. Naomi is a native of St. Louis, Missouri, where she lives with her husband.    

Comments  about Naomi's work  

 "…delicious and interesting…they bring a state of extreme peace."  

“Excellent use of such vibrant colors…love the texture!” 

 “There is a certain peacefulness about her work that captivates and soothes at the same time.” 

 “Each art piece she creates is seriously one of a kind! Amazing! Her art is a breath of fresh air.”  “Exquisitely charismatic.”   

Exhibitions

Spiritual Visions Group Show, Fontbonne University, Clayton, MO

January 27 – Feb 25, 2023 

Group Show at Longview Farm  House Galleries , Town & Country, MO

February 24-April 7, 2023

Selected Exhibitions 

2013-2022 Solo show, St. Louis Spine and Health, St. Louis, MO 

2019 Contemporary Art Museum Open Studios, St. Louis, MO

2016 Contemporary Art Museum Open Studios, St. Louis, =MO 

2015 Group show, Serendipity Gallery, St. Louis, MO 

2015 Contemporary Art Museum Open Studios, St. Louis, MO 

2014 Group show, Craft Gallery, Louisville, KY 

2013 Group show, Webster House Galleries, St. Louis, MO 

2012 Solo show, Third Degree Glass Factory, St. Louis, MO 

2011 Group Show Express Scripts, St. Louis, MO 

2011 Group show, The Tavern of Fine Arts, St. Louis, MO 

2011 Group show, Give into the Groove benefit concert, Lexington, KY 

2011 Group show, The Gallery at the Studio, St. Louis, MO 

2011 Group show, Let Them Eat Art, St. Louis, MO 

2010 Solo Show, Year One: A Retrospective, The Soulard Coffee Garden, St. Louis, MO 

2010 Solo Show, Finger painting, Urban Eats Cafe and Artist Collective, St. Louis, MO 

2010 Group show, St. Louis-Lyon Sister Cities Group Show, Clayton, MO and Lyon France  

2010 Contemporary Art Museum Open Studios, St. Louis, MO 

2009 Group show, Riff Raff's Halloween Art Show, Koken Art Factory, St. Louis, MO 

2009 Group show, Intimate Distance Art Show, The Syndicate Gallery, St. Louis, MO 

Representation

Crafts Gallery, Louisville, Kentucky (2014-2015)

Serendipity Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri (2014)

Webster House Galleries, St. Louis, Missouri (2013)

Sole Survivor Art Gallery, Belleville, Missouri (2012-2013)

Collections 

More than 140 works held in private collections throughout the United States as well as in Canada, England, Italy, and the Netherlands. 

Commissions 

More than 20 commissioned works created from 2013-2023 for collectors in St. Louis, San Francisco, and Miami. 

Artist talks 

2021 Artist talk to residents, 3 McNight Place Memory Care, St. Louis, Missouri 

Media 

2022 Interview with CanvasRebel Magazine

https://canvasrebel.com/meet-naomi-silver/

2022 Interview with VoyageSTL Magazine

https://voyagestl.com/interview/rising-stars-meet-naomi-silver-of-university-city/

2013 Interview with St. Louis Magazine

https://www.stlmag.com/culture/Watching-Artist-Naomi-Silver-PaintWithout-Brushes/ 

Education 

1987 BA in History and Russian Area Studies, University of Wisconsin-Madison