Judy Nimtz was born in Taiwan and raised on the island of O’ahu in Hawai’i. After completion of her MFA in 2008 from Laguna College of Art and Design, Judy made Southern California her home. Nimtz has exhibited her work in several solo and group exhibitions in the Los Angeles area including a joint survey exhibition with Kenny Harris at The Santa Monica College Barrett Art Gallery, Santa Monica, CA (2012) and multiple Artist-In-Residencies in Siena and Tuscany, Italy (2011-2015). She has been exhibiting with KDR since 2010.

Judy Nimtz is known stylistically for paintings of solitary, contemplative figures often set in outdoor environs. Aiming to achieve a “quiet, introspective” mood, Nimtz thoughtfully stages her models in bright sunlight on lava rocks under the ultra blue sky of her native Hawaii. With their cool, marble-like flesh and graceful poses, Nimtz’s figures reference the genre of 19th century society portraiture and the Pre-Raphaelites. Each piece focuses on the strength of its subject – a figure commanding rather than isolated by the surrounding space. During an undergraduate study abroad in Italy, Nimtz spent time in Venice, Florence, and Rome and was fascinated with the presentation of solitary saints and patrons in 13th century altarpieces. She would later echo those spatial constructs in her own work, controlling the space by containing her figures in extreme vertical or horizontal formats portrayed in oil glazed panels.