NEW YORK, NY.- Miles McEnery Gallery is presenting an exhibition of works by Liz Nielsen. The artist’s second solo exhibition at the gallery opened on 20 March at 511 West 22nd Street and remains on view through 3 May. The exhibition is accompanied by a fully illustrated digital publication featuring an essay by Liz Hirsch.
Liz Nielsen’s “light paintings,” as she coins them, take inspiration from Man Ray’s iconic photograms, or eponymous “rayographs.” However, Nielsen’s compositions are not the standard single-exposure photographs taken with a camera or lens, but meticulously layered images achieved through a laborious and rigorous method. She begins with large sheets of photographic paper, carefully revealing and concealing different areas to gradually build her final composition—each exposure deliberate, precise, and patient. Working in complete darkness, often for hours at a time, she relies solely on memory to guide her. The result is a multivalent image—entirely unique and inimitable.
Nielsen’s most recent body of work features imagined landscapes; built from light, she guides us through worlds where craggy peaks rise, waters shimmer like crystal, and auroras glow in surreal skies. These imagined terrains balance the mystical and the material, shaped by her expert hand to transform quantum chaos into careful contemplation. Nielsen’s radiating prints are a result not only of her fundamental understanding of physics and photography, but also her expert eye for composition, where individual elements choreograph harmoniously like a photosensitive ballet.
Liz Hirsch writes, “Nielsen offers a formal exploration at the intersection of painting, photography, philosophy, and the built environment, challenging our perceptions of how space can be imagined, represented, and experienced.”
LIZ NIELSEN (b. 1975 in Ashland, WI) received her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Illinois Chicago, Chicago, IL; her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL; and her Bachelor of Arts from Seattle University, Seattle, WA.
Recent solo exhibitions include “Made in the Dark,” Hexton Gallery, Aspen, CO; “She LOVES me...,” SOCO Gallery, Charlotte, NC; “Romanticist,” Danziger Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; “Edge of Forever,” Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; “Apparitions,” Black Box Projects, London, United Kingdom; “Electric Romance,” 12.26 Gallery, Dallas, TX; “Rolling Aura,” David B. Smith Gallery, Denver, CO; “Liz Nielsen: Forcefield” (presented by Strongroom), The Dutch Reformed Church, Newburgh, NY; “I’d Like to Imagine You’re in a Place Like This,” Over the Influence, Los Angeles, CA; and “Spooky Action,” Art Austerlitz, Austerlitz, NY.
Recent group exhibitions include “Camera-less,” Flinn Gallery, Greenwich, CT; “Friends & Lovers,” Main Projects, Richmond, VA; “Clairvoyance,” SHRINE, New York, NY; “Sense of Place,” Chautauqua Visual Arts, Chautauqua, NY; “Liz Nielsen & Dávid Biró: Jet Lag,” Horizont Gallery, Budapest, Hungary; “Midi de l’Art: The Borders,” Galerie MOB-ART Studio, Luxembourg City, Luxembourg;“300 Days of Sun,” Hexton Gallery,Aspen, CO;“Why I Make Art” (curated by Brian Alfred), Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; “Who Really Cares?” (curated by Helen Toomer), Samuel Dorsky Museum of Art, New Paltz, NY; “Time Lapse,” Fridman Gallery, Beacon, NY; and “Signs of Spring,” Black Box Projects, London, United Kingdom.
She is the recipient of numerous awards, including the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Grant, Washington, D.C.; New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) Grant, New York, NY; Residency, McColl Center for Arts + Innovation, Charlotte, NC; Finalist, Meijburg Art Prize, Unseen Amsterdam, Amsterdam, The Netherlands; Residency, Budapest Art Factory, Budapest, Hungary; Orange County Arts Council Relocation Grant, Newburgh, NY; and the Chicago Academic Achievement Program Grant, Chicago, IL.
Nielsen lives and works in the Hudson Valley, NY.
