This early canvas by the influential painter and educator Dona Nelson (b. 1947, American), precedes the immersive, gestural abstract works for which she is best known. Nelson’s artistic vocabulary combines mediums, incorporates nontraditional processes, and introduces unexpected materials such as cheesecloth and modeling paste as a way to disrupt conventions of painting. Not keeping with a uniform style, Nelson’s works embrace the experience of confronting and confounding her viewers through an array of subject matter, such as this depiction of a peripheral figure amidst a turbulent landscape.
–Affinities and Outliers: Highlights from the University at Albany Fine Art Collections