Gladys Nilsson’s site-specific work titled Drawing presents fantastical, hybrid beings all surrounding one monumental figure engaged in the act of drawing. A complex, garland-like arrangement of black-and-white characters soars overhead, entangled with one another, while the bystanders below, set apart by gentle color-toning, observe the scene.

The bustling composition is marked by deft and fluid lines using a candy-colored palette of crayon, graphite, and acrylic paint and marker pens. Nilsson’s whimsical creation embodies her distinctive sense of humor and levity while taking viewers on a journey through the peculiar beauty of the human experience.

Everything I’m interested in looking at usually involves the figure in one way or another. I’m always collecting interactions between folks that occur in daily life, and these filter into my work. The title of the piece is simply ‘Drawing.’ The idea is that the main figure is contained in this space, creating these figures, which take a life of their own.

(Gladys Nilsson)