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In her first solo exhibition in New York in twenty years, Chicago’s Gladys Nilsson provides a clinic in the art of watercolor in her current show. She also brings back with her the zany cast of figures—with their signature Nilsson attitudes and elastic, elongated arms and legs; the cats and birds and creatures and small-scale figures whereby she gently caricatures and choreographs the quotidian and the mundane as the operatic sub-plots in which we all have roles to play. As is frequently the case in Nilsson’s narratives, the main figures in many of the paintings in this exhibition play the roles of the diva; but perhaps characterized with a subtle difference from the whimsical humor and on-target wit with which they were portrayed previously. Here these qualities are tinged with a palpable—though unsentimental--homage to all our prima donnas, a wistful tribute to their steadfastness, courage, and vulnerability. “Brava!” Education 1962 The School of the Art Institute of Chicago Fellowships and Awards 2004 William A. Patton Prize for Watercolor, 179th Annual: An Invitational Exhibition of Contemporary American Art, National Academy Museum, New York, NY 1989, 74 NEA Fellowship Selected Solo Exhibitions 2008 Luise Ross Gallery, New York, NY 2006 Rockford College Art Museum, Rockford, IL 2005 University Art Gallery, Saginaw Valley State University, Saginaw Valley, MI 2007-05-98 Jean Albano Gallery, Chicago, IL 2004 Tory Folliard Gallery, Milwaukee, WI 2003 Adrian College, Adrian, MI 2002 Quincy Art Center, IL 2002-97 Fleisher/Ollman Gallery, Philadelphia, PA 2001 Tacoma Art Museum, Tacoma, WA 2000 Rosemont College, Rosemont, PA 1996 University Club of Chicago, IL 1996-91 Braunstein/Quay Gallery, San Francisco, CA 1994-70 Phyllis Kind Gallery, Chicago, IL 1987-75 Phyllis Kind Gallery, New York, NY 1985 Galerie Bonnier, Geneva, Switzerland 1979-80 Wake Forest University Fine Arts Gallery, Winston-Salem, NC traveled 1979 Portland Visual Arts Center, OR 1977 Susan B. Anthony Gallery, University of Wisconsin, Madison 1973 The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY 1969 San Francisco Art Institute, CA 1966 Kendall College, Evanston, IL Selected Group Exhibitions 2007 RARE BIRDS, Luise Ross Gallery,New York, NY 2006 Drawn into the World, MCA, Chicago, IL Art in Chicago, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA Artful Jesters, The Painting Center, New York, NY & Brattleboro Museum, VT 2005 Light Line and Color, Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts, Philadelphia, PA 2004 179th Annual: An invitational Exhibition, National Academy Museum, New York, NY 2002 Gladys Nilsson/ Karl Wirsum, Quincy Art Center, IL 2000 Imagist Art 1949-1979, The Whitney Museum of American Art, Fairfield, CT Biennale Fort Wayne Museum of Art, IN 2000-99 Illinois Womens Artists, IL Committee for the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington D.C. 1986 Recent Drawing Acquisitions The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY 1982-80 Who Chicago? Exhibition of Chicago Imagists, Sunderland Arts Centre, Ceolfrith Gallery, Sunderland, England 1973-4 12th Bienal de Sao Paulo, Brazil 1969-70 Human Concern/Personal Torment, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY 1968 The Whitney Annual,The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY Selected Public Collections Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth Art Institute of Chicago, IL Bank of America, Chicago, IL Brauer Museum of Art, Valparaiso University, Valparaiso, IN Deloitte, Chicago, IL JP Morgan Chase, Chicago, IL Kalamazoo Institute of Arts, Kalamazoo, MI Kendall Gallery, Ferris State University, Grand Rapids, MI Kresge Art Museum, Michigan State University, Lansing, MI Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA Maier Museum, Randolph-Macon Women's College,Lynchburg, VA Memorial Art Gallery, University of Rochester, NY Midwest Museum of American Art, Elkhart, IN Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY Museum Modern Kunst, Vienna, Austria National Museum of American Art, Smithsonian Institution, Washington D.C. New Orleans Museum of Art, LA Owens-Corning Fiberglas Corporation, Toledo, OH Philadelphia Museum of Art, Philadelphia, PA Phoenix Art Museum, AZ State of Illinois Collection, Chicago, IL Union League Club, Chicago, IL Weatherspoon Art Gallery, UNC, Greensboro, NC The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY PAST EXHIBITIONS click here