Tag: gladys nilsson

Gladys Nilsson at Garth Greenan Gallery

Twenty-six vividly colored new watercolors by Gladys Nilsson lining the walls of Garth Greenan Gallery are an intense dose of visual pleasure and irreverent fun.  In this piece titled ‘Wheee,’ Nilsson tones down her focus on the body parts we tend to keep private (with the exception of a prominent derrière), instead featuring a large figure in jester-like clothes who dangles from a fleshy-pink tree branch. From on high, the individual above makes eye contact with a similarly boneless-looking character below, each as curious about each other as they are to us.  (On view in Chelsea through Dec 17th).

Wheee, watercolor, gouache, and pencil on paper, 30 x 22 ¾ inches, 2021.

Gladys Nilsson at Matthew Marks Gallery

Proto-surrealist James Ensor and the fantastical Netherlandish painter Hieronymous Bosch figure as influencers on Chicago Imagist Gladys Nilsson’s odd characters, no surprise, given their pervading oddness and ambiguous identities.  This symmetrically arranged meeting of two couples, elderly, possibly blind, and with facial features straight out of a folk tale challenges belief even before spotting the tiny horns tucked into their mouths.  Are they communicating in honks?  Are they tooting at each other to avoid colliding on the sidewalk?  The fun is in the guessing.  (A selection of work from 1963 to 1980 is now on view at Matthew Marks Gallery in Chelsea through April 18th).

Gladys Nilsson, Honk, acrylic on panel in artist’s frame, 13 1/8 x 15 ¾ inches, 1964.

Gladys Nilsson in ’36 Works on Paper’ at Garth Greenan Gallery

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).

Gladys Nilsson, Lightly There, watercolor on paper, 23 x 30 inches, 1984.

Gladys Nilsson at Garth Greenan Gallery

In the early 90s, an LA Times critic commented on the ‘silly sort of dignity’ possessed by the eccentric characters in Gladys Nilsson’s large watercolors. The phrase perfectly characterizes these figures from the ‘80s, whose exaggerated physical characteristics and twisting bodies are equal parts grotesque and intriguing. (At Garth Greenan Gallery in Chelsea through Feb 18th).

Gladys Nilsson, Not Easily Pared, watercolor on paper, 40 x 60 inches, 1987.
Gladys Nilsson, Not Easily Pared, watercolor on paper, 40 x 60 inches, 1987.

Gladys Nilsson at Garth Greenan Gallery

Traditional perspective takes a vacation in riotous new collages by Chicago Imagist artist Gladys Nilsson featuring monumental female figures created from and surrounded by consumer goods. This quail-eggs-for-nipples-Venus yolks it up against a fertile arbor backdrop. (At Garth Greenan Gallery, through Dec 6th).

Gladys Nilsson, A Girl in the Arbor #3, mixed media on paper, 2013.