john randall nelson
Posted on December 21, 2013
by Merry Murphy 
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(A Public Art Project by John Randall Nelson and Joe Willie Smith). Fabricated steel fences, gates, cast concrete posts and shade structures. Sited at Matthew Henson HOPE VI Housing Project, Phoenix, AZ. 2013. “Fifty-two sculptural finials with fifty-two unique concrete posts combine to effect jarringly comical juxtapositions of objects and form. Spinning whirligigs and rustic weathervanes create an overall art garden environment that stands like a symbol of locality and remembrance.” Click here to read.
“This Arizona artist’s mixed-media panels call to you from across a room with colorful forms and bold symbols. But when you draw closer, they whisper, with layers of texture and half-hidden words.” Seattle Times by Lynn Jacobson. Click here to read.
” Profuse with signs and heavy with ambiguity; the works rejoice in materiality. These are objects, part of the sensual world.” Click here for AP Review.
Fresh Paint Gallery, Culver City, CA. November 2 through December 21, 2013. Featuring: John Randall Nelson and Raul De La Torre. Click here to read.
A exhibition of paintings and sculptures at Stremmel Gallery (Reno, NV) in conjunction the Nevada Museum of Art. Click here for Images and Bio.
“Like the meanings they invoke, Nelson’s works are layered. From a distance, their lively forms — rabbits, plants and coyote men suggestive of indigenous imagery — appear to mock the staid stick-people adorning pedestrian signs. Nelson’s works are anything but pedestrian, however. Approach closer, and additional words and images emerge from their near-burial in paint.” By Nicholas Gerbis Click here to read.
“Anthropomorphic Bicycle: A Kinetic Weathervane” located in the Bell Tower Gateway for the Scottsdale Civic Center (next to the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art). Click here for Images and Bio.
“Almost pictographic, they almost evoke the work of aboriginal, “primitive” or outsider artists, but they are also subtle, with faint traces of text and decorous patterns, things that might not make any literal sense but which play on subconscious associations.” Review by D. Eric Bookhardt. Click here to read.