Parker Gallery is open Wednesday–Saturday, 12–6pm
Gladys Nilsson
Inquire CV

She Laughs Back: Feminist Wit in 1970s Bay Area Art
Curated by Elaine O'Brien
University Galleries, California State University, Sacramento
February 6–April 13, 2024

A founding member of the Hairy Who—a group of six alumni from the Art Institute of Chicago who staged a series of collective, intrepid exhibitions beginning in 1966 at the Hyde Park Art Center—Gladys Nilsson (b. 1940 in Chicago, IL, where she continues to live and work) is widely regarded as a master in watercolor, a medium the artist has explored in depth for over fifty years. In the 1960s and early 1970s, she produced acrylic paintings on plexiglas and canvas, before returning to the medium with vigor in recent years. Her paintings employ the same sharp sense of humor and cheeky character studies that characterize her broader oeuvre. Drawing equally from her daily observations and popular culture, the artist’s dynamic compositions—exquisitely rendered in delicate pools of lush color—are densely populated with a multitude of attenuated figures ranging widely in scale. Teeming with humor and activity, her works examine themes of sexuality and gender, often depicting diverse characters performing a range of domestic rituals or alternately engaging in acts of explicit voyeurism.

In 1973, Nilsson was among the first women to have a solo exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. Since then, her work has been exhibited widely, and is included in the collections of the Art Institute of Chicago; Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Smithsonian American Art Museum, Washington D.C.; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; and the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, among others.

Hardcover
452 pages
11 3/8 x 11 3/8 inches (28.8 x 28.8 cm)
By Laura Whitcomb
With texts by Peter Frank, Jim Newman, Gene Youngblood, Jay Sanders and Antoine Thirion
Published by Label Curatorial
December 2021

$150

Hardcover, 176 pages
10 1/2 × 9 inches (26.7 × 22.9 cm)
Text by Marcia Tucker
Interview by Alison M. Gingeras
Matthew Marks Gallery/Garth Greenan Gallery, New York
2020

Hardcover, 68 pages
10 1/4 × 8 3/4 inches (26 × 22.2 cm)
Text by Robert Storr
Interview by Dan Nadel
Garth Greenan Gallery, New York, 2014

Perfect bound, 20 pages
8 1/2 × 10 inches (21.6 × 25.4 cm)
Introduction by Deven K. Golden
Text by Russell Bowman
Design by Lois Grimm
Edition of 2000
Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago, 1984

Artforum — February 1st, 2023
Reviews: Gladys Nilsson at Garth Greenan Gallery
Contemporary Art Daily — January 8th, 2021
Gladys Nilsson at Parker Gallery
Frieze — April 21st, 2020
'The Older I Get, the Bigger I Want These Women to Be!'
Artforum — April 1st, 2020
Gladys Nilsson at Matthew Marks Gallery & Garth Greenan Gallery
The Brooklyn Rail — March 1st, 2020
Gladys Nilsson with Robert R. Shane
Interview — February 21st, 2020
Gladys Nilsson Paints Like She People-Watches
artnet News — February 21st, 2020
Painter Gladys Nilsson Got Her Start as a Member of Chicago’s Hairy Who. Now, at 79, She’s Ready to Shine on Her Own
Hyperallergic — February 15th, 2020
The Wonderfully Perplexing World of Gladys Nilsson
The New York Times — January 30th, 2020
She Painted With the Hairy Who. Now She’s Going Big, at 79.
Frieze — September 18th, 2019
Critics' Guides: The Best Exhibitions in Chicago This Weekend
Frieze — March 6th, 2019
Gladys Nilsson’s Metamorphic Women
Contemporary Art Daily — December 11th, 2018
Parker Gallery at NADA Miami
Artforum — September 1st, 2018
“HAIRY WHO? 1966–1969”
Contemporary Art Daily — August 4th, 2018
The Candy Store at Parker Gallery
Los Angeles Times — July 3rd, 2018
This Candy Store wasn't a candy store: Remembering a California gallery that made art stars
The New York Times — December 11th, 2014
Art in Review: Gladys Nilsson
the Paris Review — November 4th, 2014
Eye Contact: An Interview with Gladys Nilsson
The New York Times — September 5th, 2014
Recognizing a Vibrant Underground
The New York Times — April 7th, 1996
Thumbing the Nose, At Artistic Propriety
Parker Gallery is open Wednesday–Saturday, 12–6pm