Gladys Nilsson

Gladys Nilsson, one of the Chicago Imagists, a group of artists prevalent in the 1960s who were associated with the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Their distinctively graphic and unwaveringly vibrant artworks spanned a range of media, from painting and printmaking to drawing and sculpture. Specifically, Nilsson experimented with dreamlike watercolours and collages that used the full spectrum of the colour wheel and an excess of different shapes, creating playful tapestries rich with movement and imagery. Shapes and body parts swirl into one another, creating a fluid visual language influenced by Nilsson’s love of comics and interest in commercial signage.