Critic John Yau hits the nail on head when he describes Gladys Nilsson’s ability to ‘keep the viewer looking in ways that are both pleasurable and challenging.’ In her 1984 watercolor ‘Lightly There,’ Nilsson sets up a seemingly flirtatious engagement between two masculine and feminine characters against a backdrop of folks high-mindedly going about their business, noses to the air. Extra-long limbs – oddly allowing the man on the left to reach between his legs to pick up a tiny passenger – are just the beginning of the eccentric proportions and asymmetries of bodies, hair and facial features that lend Nilsson’s characters their intrigue and bait us to question what’s going on. (On view in ’36 Works on Paper’ at Garth Greenan Gallery in Chelsea through August 9th).
