Nancy Cheairs reworks the chaos of nature into highly symbolic and ritualized compositions that exude a mystical presence. Besides symbolic references to visions of spirit figures, illusions of streaming light, and rippling auras, the meaning of her paintings resides in the concentration and care insistently enclosed within the surfaces of her canvases, in which there is an overwhelming impression of luminosity and a sense of matter being transformed into spirit energy... A rich surface luminosity is attained through her glazing...[which] produces rare nuances of tone and hue that are radiant, allusive, and indefinable.
—Art Papers, Fred Burton
Because of their visual fluency and literacy, Cheairs' present works offer up intense, educated pleasures. She creates her imagery using an eloquent sensibility and exquisite technique, and the results linger in the mind and eye long after the viewer leaves the gallery space.
—Art Papers, Fred Burton
Cheairs is gifted with the power to get at life's truths and express them in bold visual terms.
—Art Forum
Ms. Cheairs's [has an] attraction to symbols of metamorphoses and longing for wholeness.
—Commercial Appeal, Fredric Koeppel
A streak of mysticism informs Ms. Cheairs' work, not necessarily the mysticism that yearns for a specific religious experience but that directed toward spiritual, emotional and natural unity.
—Commercial Appeal, Fredric Koeppel
Cheairs is the perfect answer to those avant-garde artists who have convinced themselves that the concept is everything in art…Her deep, jewel-like colors and rich, velvety glazes demonstrate once again that conceptualization and execution are the 1-2 punch of real art.
—Memphis Business Journal, Edwin Howard
Her illuminated images resonate like emotional impressions, like glimpses of the past.
—Southern Accents, Diana Wall