Irene Nelson
Oakland, USA *1951
"Painting is an act of self discovery; creating some order from the chaos."
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Irene Nelson is an abstract painter living and working in Oakland, California. Her work is typically gestural and relates in one way or another to the landscape. In the studio, she approaches each work of art, no matter what medium, in a similar, intuitive manner. The moment guides her, transforming uncertainty into expressive mark making. Each gesture informs the next like an “act of discovery.” Nelson sees the process as “a dance between thinking and not thinking, balancing patience with spontaneity. It is an act of faith.” Each resulting composition unlocks imagery that may or may not have been lingering in her subconscious. It is the creative process that, to her, becomes the answer to the continual question “what if?”. After a successful career in graphic design, Nelson dedicated herself full time to her lifelong painting and photography practices. She works in varying media, from paintings that mingle acrylic paint with collaged personal photographs to monoprints on paper, which she discovered during her residency at Kala Art Institute in Berkeley. Her works have been featured in various solo and group exhibitions in the Bay Area since 2009 including Gearbox Gallery, Oakland; Jen Tough Gallery, Vallejo; Arthouse on R, Sacramento, O’Hanlan Center for the Arts Gallery, Mill Valley; Kala Art Institute; Berkeley Art Center, Berkeley; and Sanchez Art Center, Pacifica. Her works are held in various private collections internationally.
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