Ranging from yellow ochre to black, Nugent’s large-scale canvases are subdued in tonality. They incorporate forms that represent natural, if not specifically identifiable, objects, such as: beehives, vertebrae, onions, pomegranates, and plants. Stripped of contextual presentation, the flora and fauna that Nugent depicts are abstracted beyond recognition. Their essence is captured by gestural marks and impastoed layers of oils on mixed media canvases.

Nugent’s work is heavily influenced by frequent trips to the Brazilian Amazon River Basin and often incorporates impressions of what was seen and felt during his sojourns in the region. In the artist’s words, “The Amazon River is an apt metaphor for the act of churning up of remembered objects and sights, gathered while traveling along its rough course. In its flow, the river boils and pushes an object to the surface only to swallow it up again to resurface later.These impressions are a memory of the river bound on both sides by a high dark jungle; foreboding and beautiful.If it takes you in, it takes you in whole.”

Among other awards and grants, Nugent received the 2001 US State Department Cultural Exchange Grant in Sao Paulo, a National Endowment for the Arts Individual Fellowship, and a Fulbright Foundation Travel Grant. Since 1971, he has participated in over 80 solo exhibitions, and his commissions form part of numerous private and public collections. Nugent’s work has been collected by major museums, among them, the Oakland Museum of Art, Brooklyn Museum of Art, Indianapolis Museum of Art, and the Museum of Modern Art in Sao Paulo, Brazil.