Erin Jane Nelson

Lot #53
Ocracoke, 2018
Resin, pigment, sand, and pigment print on glazed stoneware
17 x 14 x 2.5 inches
Courtesy of the artist and Document Gallery, Chicago

About the Artwork

In her ceramic works, Erin Jane Nelson memorializes barrier islands of the South Atlantic and Gulf coasts that are likely to disappear with rising sea levels, many of which have complicated legacies of colonialism, slavery, racism, environmental degradation, and militarism. Drawing from vernacular Southern craft, Nelson reflects on how the changing climate has radically reshaped both the geography and the collective consciousness of these regions. Ocracoke and works in her Markers series are haloed with spikes and spindles evocative of the decaying handles of a ship’s wheel—and, perhaps, our diminishing capacity to steer our way to safety. Nelson’s work has recently been exhibited in Making Knowing: Craft in Art, 1950–2019 and Between the Waters at the Whitney Museum of American Art in New York. She has had solo shows at Atlanta Contemporary Art Center; Chapter NY; and DOCUMENT, Chicago. Nelson is a 2020 recipient of the Rabkin Award for Arts Journalism and a 2021 MOCA GA Working Artist Project Fellow.

Retail Value: $5,500