Dona Nelson
| Dona Nelson | |
|---|---|
| Born |
1947 (age 68–69) Grand Island, Nebraska |
| Education |
|
| Occupation |
|
| Organization | Tyler School of Art |
| Awards | |
Dona Nelson (born 1947) is an American abstract painter known for her work on two-sided paintings. In 2014, Roberta Smith of the New York Times called her "one of the best artists working today".[1] She lives in Lansdale, Pennsylvania, and is represented by Thomas Erben Gallery, New York. She is a professor of painting and drawing at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University.
Career
Born in Grand Island, Nebraska, Nelson moved to New York City in 1967 to participate in the Whitney Museum Independent Study Program and earned her BFA from Ohio State University in 1968.[2] Nelson received a Guggenheim Fellowship in 1994.
She is a full-time Professor of Painting and Drawing at the Tyler School of Art at Temple University, Philadelphia.[3]
Style
Nelson works with acrylic paint on unprimed canvas employing a variety of methods: direct brushwork, pours, acrylic-soaked cheesecloth, forcing paint through the surface with a high-pressure hose, and more,[4] in an effort to avoid an "autobiographic mark."[5] She has engaged extensively with two-sided paintings, work that the New York Times described as "the opposite of zombie formalism — quite alive, distinct and infused with an adamant, difficult beauty".[1] The Times's review of her 2014 solo show, Phigor, ends with an interrogation of her work and technique as painterly objects to be considered as thoughtfully crafted three-dimensional objects.[1] Though her work used to include representational imagery, it is now exclusively abstract, and large scale. She often addresses Modernism's grid motif through the crossbeams of the painting's stretchers, sometimes stained but intact and other times removing them part of the way through her process, resulting in their negative spaces' ghosts in the painting.[6]
In a review of her solo show at Thomas Erben Gallery, Phigor (2014), Fabian Lopez remarked in Title Magazine that "Nelson’s paintings give us a taste of the old American romanticism with a sense of the current American satire", praising her creativity using simple, traditional techniques.[7]
Collections and exhibitions
Nelson has exhibited extensively nationally and internationally. Her work appeared in the 2014 Whitney Biennial,[8] curated by Michelle Grabner, and her work has been collected by a number of institutions, including The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts.[2]
Awards
Nelson has won multiple awards and grants.[2]
| 2015 | Anonymous Was a Woman Grant |
| 2013 | Artist Legacy Foundation Award |
| 2011 | Foundation for Contemporary Arts |
| 2000 | Tesuque Foundation Grant. Peer nominated |
| 1994 | John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Fellowship |
References
- 1 2 3 Smith, Roberta (8 May 2014). "Dona Nelson: 'Phigor'". The New York Times.
- 1 2 3 "Dona Nelson—Resumé". donanelson.com. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
- ↑ "Dona Nelson". Tyler School of Art. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
- ↑ "New Paintings « Thomas Erben Gallery – New York, NY". www.thomaserben.com. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
- ↑ "Dona Nelson". www.brooklynrail.org. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
- ↑ "Dona Nelson – Reviews – Art in America". www.artinamericamagazine.com. Retrieved 2016-03-06.
- ↑ Lopez, Fabian (21 April 2014). "The Alchemy of Phigor and Others". Title Magazine.
- ↑ "Dona Nelson | Whitney Museum of American Art". whitney.org. Retrieved 2016-03-06.