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Dreamland | Oil And Acrylic Painting in Paintings by John Randall Nelson | Sue Greenwood Fine Art in Laguna Beach
Dreamland | Oil And Acrylic Painting in Paintings by John Randall Nelson | Sue Greenwood Fine Art in Laguna Beach
Dreamland | Oil And Acrylic Painting in Paintings by John Randall Nelson | Sue Greenwood Fine Art in Laguna Beach
Dreamland | Oil And Acrylic Painting in Paintings by John Randall Nelson | Sue Greenwood Fine Art in Laguna Beach
Dreamland | Oil And Acrylic Painting in Paintings by John Randall Nelson | Sue Greenwood Fine Art in Laguna Beach
Dreamland | Oil And Acrylic Painting in Paintings by John Randall Nelson | Sue Greenwood Fine Art in Laguna Beach

Created and Sold by John Randall Nelson

John Randall Nelson

Dreamland - Paintings

Featured In Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA

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“Faux-naïf artist John Randall Nelson has crafted an idiosyncratic but instantly identifiable symbolic language. His paintings, prints, and sculptures feature cartoon-like images of humans, wolves, birds, teardrops, desert plants, and polka dots. In his two-dimensional work, Nelson often collages layers of motifs together with bits of appropriated text.

His work touches on Neo-Expressionism and American Folk Art, emphasizing simplified images. For Nelson, the unconscious is like a reservoir; themes emerge, some that are humorous, others that are cryptic and vague.” Artsy, 2023

In his most recent exhibition appropriately titled “Dreamland,” the subject of the work changes from piece to piece, but the core stems from a long developed personal lexicon. If there’s a theory behind Nelson’s work, it’s semiotics: the theory of signs. In semiotic theory images can function like words in a sentence, the meaning of each image dependent on how it is paired with other symbols.

John Randall Nelson
Meet the Creator
Wescover creator since 2019
I think the ambiguous is more interesting, more engaging. Because there is always something more to discover it reveals itself more slowly and it has greater longevity.”

John Randall Nelson lives and works in Tempe, Arizona. An MFA graduate of Arizona State University’s Herberger School of Fine Arts, his folk art inspired works have been exhibited and collected both nationally and abroad. A sculptor as well as a painter, he has completed commissions for clients as diverse as the National Endowment for the Arts, the United States Postal Service and the BIO5 Institute at the University of Arizona.

“Over the years I've heard Nelson's work described as Outsider Art, Pop, and Primitive. Maybe it's all of the above. What I do know is John has perfected the combination of playful and poignant. Using a diverse mix of materials in both painting and sculpture, he's developed a unique language over the years with the use of societal, political ancedotes and familiar cultural icons. Nelson has created a landscape all his own, both introspective and whimsical, much appreciated qualities, in this ever-changing moment in time.”
Covington Jordan, Director, Gebert Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM.