Judy Nimtz

Born in Taiwan and raised on the island of O‘ahu, Hawai‘i, Judy Nimtz is a painter known for luminous, introspective portraits of solitary figures set in radiant natural landscapes. After receiving her MFA from Laguna College of Art and Design in 2008, Nimtz made Southern California her home. She has exhibited widely, including a joint survey exhibition with Kenny Harris at the Santa Monica College Barrett Art Gallery (2012), and has participated in multiple artist residencies in Siena and Tuscany, Italy (2011–2015). Nimtz has exhibited with Koplin Del Rio Gallery since 2010.

Nimtz’s work is distinguished by its quiet intensity—figures with marble-like flesh posed gracefully against volcanic rocks and under the expansive skies of her native Hawai‘i. Her compositions are deeply influenced by 19th-century society portraiture and the Pre-Raphaelites, as well as 13th-century Italian altarpieces, which she studied during a formative undergraduate experience in Italy. Often presented in extreme vertical or horizontal formats, her oil-glazed panels frame each subject as strong and self-possessed—commanding the space they inhabit rather than disappearing into it.