Thomas Nelsson Castello 5477/A 30100 Venezia Italia tel. 0039 41 5201497 Thomas Nelsson, U.S.A. 1965 Principal group exhibitions 1985    Intaglio Prints, Brunner Gallery, Iowa 1986    New Aspirations, Chicago Art Center, Chicago 1987    Group Show, Blood Gallery, Bath Principal Personal Exhibitions 1988    Recent Works, Thomas Arden Gallery, Chicago 1991    Loving, Galleria Dau al Set, Barcelona 1994    Opere su Carta, Galleria Il Melograno, Roma 1995    Thomas Nelsson, Borgia Gallery, London 1996    Tradimenti, Art and Concept, München 1997    Opere Recenti, Galleria Dieda, Bassano 1997    Ancesters, Galleria APT, Grado 1998    After Love, Atelier Brandt, Venezia 1999    Essence et sens, La Tour Rose, Lyon

Almost forgotten by the successive American and English metropolitan experiences, surely far from those Italian, the memory of the American landscape, birthplace of Thomas Nelsson, prepotently emerges and permeates in itself the chromatic values and the seriality of the works of this artist presented here entitled "Le Carezze Dimenticate". In the Midwest the seasons of nature alternate in a short time, solar and lunar landscapes, unconfined expanses of mixed earth of colors burnt and silvery, to immense fields of corn which invade the prairies and low hills, surround woods, swallow houses and roads with a geometric linearity reiterated "ad infinitum" and dominated by the color yellow or better, by the reflection of yellow, gold. The browns, the silvers and the gold's (the non colors) are exactly what define the artist, ancestral memories which find a way to express themselves in how much they are necessary for the conception of his works. The branches, the leaves, the flowers and the seeds are the pictoric media which he incorporates into and prefers to use in his works; nothing could apparently be judged more fragile, unstable and ephemeral. Instead, the natural object surprisingly is transformed, fixed and eternalized. The colors pink and green, amply used by the Italians as a background for the fleshtones of portraits, become in the works of Thomas Nelsson, the surface, which has the specific duty to conserve that which is underneath it. At the same time, the natural object which is covered by, and from which it is fortified, nourished and sheathed, attempts to re-emerge an pulse with new life. Over the surface, natural pigments recall at times the opaque earth and its moods, other times, the veils of lacquer render the surfaces translucent and humid, the reflect, like a deformed mirror, suggestions that are beyond the object, other times still, the gold recalls immense yellow horizons which dazzle the view, making eyes close and memories explode. Nature and technique, sentiments and memories, America and Europe, antique and modern, simplicity and reference to precise masters collide and then combine, they recall the work and the time of execution of antique artisans and at the same time fix the violence of the past. This is how, in fact, the precious and aged fabrics used by the artist following the suggestive indications of antique panels of masters such as Jacopo da Valenza or Bartolomeo Montagna, assume a new meaning, but like the other objects, are manipulated and frozen to the point where they will age no further and become works.

Giulio Bono

"A Place We´ve Never Been To", Installation at ex Deposito della Birreria, Venice, 1998

"When We Were One", 1998

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