Lawrence Campbell, wrote in ARTNews:
“Whatever the nature of the secret, the breath of an invisible order hangs over [her work]. The still-lifes, portraits, landscapes and clothed figures in interiors betray Grilikhes’ admiration for Piero and Poussin, yet she in no mannerist. …The concentration is upon figures …as solid as blue-chip stock, in enclosed spaces of crystalline purity.”
Nora Lawrence, a former Curatorial Assistant, Dept. of Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art wrote in a Prince Street Gallery Catalogue essay:
In her new exhibition of drawings and paintings, Nancy Grilikhes has continued her fruitful investigation into the beautiful realities and mysterious illusions of space and geometry. Her subjects are simultaneously recognizable objects and abstract motifs, and while they ground her artistic process in the matter of the real world, they also demonstrate the gulf between the real and its representation.
ARTNews noted of her work that, “[h]er landscapes are beautiful. In them she concentrates all the forces of nature, seen through a veil of symbols…”, and critic/painter Hearne Pardee has written: “[She] sets up parallels between still life and portraiture, which share a cool objectivity and subdued sensuality.”
Grilikhes continues her exploration into the intersection of the world as it is observed, and the world as it is felt. In Paintings and Drawings, 2016, Grilikhes explores and heightens the realm of the ordinary, revealing subtle yet surprising relationships of space, form, color and time. The work on display depicts what is present but also what is not possible to see directly – the breeze that moves a curtain, the partnering of gravity and humidity as they force the curl of a piece of paper- thereby acknowledging the unknown in the most ordinary of moments. In its order and clarity of space, her work shows the influence of artists as varied as Diebenkorn, Piero, and Balthus. Her carefully balanced compositions and controlled color shifts bring the eye to rest on a simple object like a water bottle, while the world slows to a halt around it, transforming the mundane into the mysterious. Each piece draws us closer to see what other secrets may be revealed. …written by Antonia Grilikhes-Lasky for Nancy Grilikhes’ 2016 press release for her Prince Street Gallery exhibition.”