Nancy Tilitz
by Becky Tan

Nancy Tilitz grew up in a small town 60 miles north of Chicago, Illinois. At the University of Illinois she graduated with a Bachelor of Science in medical art and a Masters in Education in medical education. She also studied figure painting at the Art Institute of Chicago. She worked for Project Hope in Barbados for six months, but stayed on an extra year, getting her own work permit. She lived in Amsterdam for two years, as well as in Brooklyn, NY. In 1986, she moved to Hamburg. She is a freelance artist and her speciality is life-sized nudes and portraits.

She originally opened her gallery in the ABC Forum near the Marriott Hotel. When she realized that this was not to be permanent, she searched for a new venue. She and her sister were jogging past Dammtor train station and saw an empty shop with the sign, “Keine Gastronomie.” Her concept fit the bill and she opened her new gallery in 2004 first with first a three-month, then a six-month, and now, a longer contract.  Her landlord is the Deutsche Bundesbahn.

Besides running a gallery, Nancy is also a court illustrator. Often her drawings of judges, lawyers, and possible criminals appear in local Hamburg newspapers and on television. She illustrated the book Ich habe das Pferd nicht gestohlen (I didn’t steal the horse), a humorous collection of real court cases collected by Ralf Nehmzow. On Friday evenings her gallery turns into a popular jazz scene with great international musicians performing for love (no entrance charge – but donations are welcome). See www.fancynancy.de for more information.