Exhibited : Jane Sanders' Gallery - Lady Chatterley's Lover, October 2011 - January 2012

Jan Nigro is best known for her figurative paintings, drawings and collages. Her name appears in scholarship and commentary of both Australian and New Zealand art.

Nigro studied at Elam from 1936 - 1938, under the aegis of Archibald Fisher. Fisher's teaching emphasized the study of the human figure, and though Nigro would later reject his stylistic conservatism, the human figure remained at the core of her work.

Nigro painted in various media, abstracts and human figures, though she is best known for her colourful nude figures."A dressed person tells you a lot about them, about the period they lived in," she explained in a 2011 interview, "but when you get to the nude you get to the real person." She exhibited her art at the Auckland City Art Gallery in 1939, and again the following year, as a member of the Auckland Society for Arts. In 1946 she participated in a show in Sydney.

Her first solo show was in Melbourne in 1948, with a second in the same city in 1950, and another upon returning to live in New Zealand in 1952. Further solo and group shows followed, with multiple exhibitions nearly every year from the mid-1960s until her death.

Nigro was appointed a Member of the Order of the British Empire in the 1993 New Year Honours, for services to art. She published an autobiography titled Apple for the Teacher in 1996.