Gladys Nilsson
Gleefully Askew, 1963–2026
Gleefully Askew, 1963–2026
Born in Chicago in 1940, Gladys Nilsson is best known for her watercolors of long-limbed figures engaged in everyday micro-dramas. As a member of Chicago’s Hairy Who in the 1960s, Nilsson made watercolors that earned her a reputation as the most “feminine” member of the group—a characterization that she has challenged and spoofed throughout her career. Nilsson’s self-reflexive approach has guided her experimental practice, which includes Plexiglas paintings, largescale diptychs, embroidery-hoop paintings, black-on-silver drawings, prints, and mixed-media collages.
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Now in her 80s, Nilsson continues to actively work in her studio, creating surprising new works that revisit familiar themes with even greater aplomb, fluidity, and mischievousness. Nilsson’s long-overdue first museum retrospective will reunite her watercolors, paintings, drawings, and prints from critical moments in her 60-year career, including her early Hairy Who years, her radical experiments while living in Sacramento between 1968 and 1976, and her irreverent and delightful recent works that explore aging bodies. A comprehensive 240-page catalogue will be published on the occasion of the retrospective.