Nura Petrov

Painter · Photographer · Sculptor
My latest video discusses my time at the Barnes Foundation and how my work relates to Duchamp, Cezanne and Matisse: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uITw5eOXuOw

My studio in New Hope is overflowing with conceptual art works that prompt examination of the poetic aspects of mundane objects such as windows and ladders. My sculptures unite formal art values with the unpredictable, nonculturally prescribed beauty of natural objects such as sticks and stones. They invite the viewer to "become" the sculptor/artist by handling and rearranging unfixed, moveable, sculpture segments. My objective is to create a provocative circumstance rather than a static product/commodity.-Nura Petrov



Nura Petrov is a mixed media sculpture artist who resides in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. Petrov's traditional sculptures included a variety of material, including clay, plaster, papier mache, and photography. Her most current conceptual work deals with time, memory, and history, using material such as sticks, stones, cloth, and paint. Many of her pieces deal with the tactile aspects of sculpture.


Petrov questions the nature of art, information, and knowledge. Some abstract drawings incorporate ideas about time a...

University of Pennsylvania, BFA 1962
Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Sculpture Major

Studied figure sculpture with Harry Rosin and Figure composition with Walker Hancock

Cresson and Schiedt Traveling Scholarships William Clarke Mason Prize

The Barnes Foundation

Studied with Violetta De Mazia

Graduate seminars with Stella Kramrisch, curator emeritus, Philadelphia Museum of Art and internationally recognized expert on Indian and Buddhist sculpture and inconography

Graduate courses in Mayan iconography with Jill Leslie Furst. Annual Mayan weekends at University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology

Recent events and exhibitions include:

2017

Annual Juried Sculpture Exhibition, New Hope Arts Center, New Hope, Pennsylvania

Assemblage/Collage Invitational Exhibition, New Hope Arts Center, New Hope, Pennsylvania

2016

2016 Juried Sculpture Exhibition, New Hope Arts Center, New Hope, Pennsylvania

Exposure 2016 The Photo Re-Imagined, New Hope Arts Center, New Hope, Pennsylvania (At the Edge of the Forest)

2015

Graffiti and Mayan, Chinese and Celtic Calligraphy and Iconography, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia

2014

Nura Petrov compares Melbourne Graffiti to Contemporary Artwork and Anthropology

2013

Nura Petrov Ideas and Images in Conceptual Art: Utamaro Revisited

2012

Nura Petrov - Ideas and Images in Conceptual Art: Maps and Drawings as Kinetic Memory

2009

53rd Biennale di Venezia (53rd Venice Biennale), Works on Paper, A Global Perspective,NY Arts Venice Pavilion, Venice Italy and Bejing China

2007 Annual Indoor Sculpture Exhibition, New Hope Arts Center, New Hope, PA

2006 Annual Indoor Sculpture Exhibition, New Hope Arts Center, New Hope, PA

2004

78th A...