Beloved St. Louis Artist Frederick Nelson
"I like the matte surface on my painting, because it allows the texture to show more and allows for those subtle textures to become more visible"
FN
Atrium gallery, in the Central West End in St. Louis has represented Frederick Nelson for over 30 years. Nelson, a St. Louis native earned his MFA in painting from Washington University. After living in London and several other places, he returned to St. Louis in the early 1980s and has been here every since. Many artists find their inspiration from the world around them, but for Nelson his work feeds and grows from within, and in response to itself. That helps to explain why he spends so much time in one room and why it doesn't necessarily matter where he lives (he does love the Midwest though), but his artwork is totally self reliant. His paintings have always been abstract, without even vaguely recognizable images. They are essentially color field paintings, broad expanses of color that fill the surfaces from edge to edge. But that's not to say that his work divorces itself completely from recognizable imagery. His Rothko-like horizontal bands of color transform into ethereal landscapes; his quick brush strokes remind us of dancing figures, confetti streamers or shimmering light on bouncing off of a body of water.
At his best, Nelson excels at what can be best described as a sense of randomness. He fully embraces abstraction. "For me abstraction is the means by which an artist can reveal a different reality, or alternate realities". He emphasizes color over line, passion above judgment and content above form. Click on our link to view our expansive Nelson inventory: