Joining the Transcendental & the Visceral

Dona Nelsonโ€“or Professor Nelsonโ€“has been teaching at the Tyler School of Art since 1991.ย  The professor of painting and drawing started her career years ago, and yet her very โ€œunusualโ€ art is still making headlines today; yes, she makes it on the โ€œartists to watch out forโ€ list almost every year.

By Hend Seif El Din

Her work has been featured in numerous solo gallery exhibitions in New York City, and as a part of various group exhibitions on the national level.ย  Her paintings are included in the Metropolitan Museum, the Weatherspoon Museum of Fine Art, the M.I.T Collection, and the Guggenheim Museumโ€ฆjust to name a few!

A true interrogator of painting, her work โ€œforcesโ€ spectators to look inward.ย  Is it her technique?ย  Her use of various fabrics in intriguing ways?ย  One cannot clearly sayโ€ฆbut what is for sure, is that her art is striking.

Looking at Nelsonโ€™s work, youโ€™ll notice that she doesnโ€™t have a clear signature style, like most artists do.ย  As a matter of fact, her antipathy toward displaying the latter is rooted in the 1960s, when she herself was an art student.ย  Back then, artists of all kind rebelled against the commonly-followed โ€œrules,โ€ andโ€“as suchโ€“strove to interpret art without labeling it.

She uses a plethora of processes, depending on her vision, including washing, scraping, pouring, dripping, and veiling, which all add up to her desire to join the visceral and the transcendental in an abstractโ€“and very newโ€“manner.
Nelson also says that she enjoys painting under pressure, which is evident in her work.ย  Looking at her canvases, one can almost feel the frustration of โ€œtryingโ€ to create and paint, followed by the sudden and quick resolution to just โ€œdo it,โ€ making her visuals very powerful.

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