2020 Faculty Biennial Profile: Kelli Nelson

Meet the artists of the 2020 MCAD Faculty Biennial

My work rests precariously between reality and imagination, evoking enigmatic images of plant life, landscape, and organic forms. These motifs act as agents for deeper emotional and ecstatic states of consciousness, and human possibility. In Merkabah, inspired by Jewish mysticism and a found structure On the Beach, there is reference to a vehicle of ascension by way of a nomadic shelter, resembling a tipi or lavvu designed for relocation. The support structure offers a sense of refuge from the turbid water and the dismal sky, but its lack of covering suggests a removal of the veil between the inside and the exterior world, an opening, and urgent need for departure.

About Kelli Nelson

Kelli Nelson is a Minneapolis-based painter and educator. She earned an MFA in Visual Studies from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design. She holds a BFA in Visual Art, with a minor in Art History, from the University of North Dakota. Nelson’s work is in the University of North Dakota Permanent Art Collection and has been exhibited at the State Capitol Building in Bismarck, ND. She was awarded the 2019 Artist Initiative Grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board. She spent two summer seasons as artist-in-residence at the McCanna House through the North Dakota Museum of Art. Her work has been featured in Design & Living Magazine and Inspired Home Magazine. Currently, she is represented by Ecce Art Gallery in Fargo, ND, teaches Drawing at Metropolitan State University, and is a mentor in the MCAD MFA program.