Tania Nelson
Tania Nelson is an explorer of the modern human experience. She shares her observations in photographs and paintings, focusing on issues of personal identity, politics, historical narratives and so many other current points of division and unity.
Tania was born and raised in Wausau, Wisconsin. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay in 1999, where she studied in the interdisciplinary Social Change and Development program. She survived in the banking industry for twenty years before turning to art and photography full time in 2019.
She is a life-long photographer, starting in the 1980s with her mom’s Kodak 110 camera. She often uses her photos as references for her paintings. She began painting in 2023 as a way to deepen the stories of the places she photographed, often painting imagery that highlights the contradictions of American consumer culture.
Tania has exhibited in group shows in Northeast Wisconsin since 2021. Some of her signature works are viewable and on her website www.tanianelsonart.com
During my time at the University of Wisconsin - Green Bay in the 1990s I studied in their interdisciplinary Social Change and Development program. It allowed me a generous number of credits to use on courses of my choosing. I really found a strong interest in the Urban and Regional Studies classes. This unique study experience instilled in me a strong desire to explore how places exist in history and memory.
My painting practice started as a way to deepen my archeological dig through my childhood in a 1980s central Wisconsin trailer park. I wanted to understand how those memories fit into historical systems. Those remembered elements still exist in the built environments of the upper midwest and rendering them on canvas helps solidify memories (mine and the viewer’s) into history.
All of my paintings are real places that I have visited - some just a few blocks from my home. I work from my own snapshots of the place, sometimes using multiple photos from across several seasons. I often study historical images of a building if I can find them online, or paint studies from more than one perspective. The memories of a place are in the color of the siding, parked vehicles, broken windows, garbage cans, yard decor and overgrown flower beds. I am keen to include mundane elements such as utilities meters, power lines, and house numbers as they anchor the place memories to historical timelines.
These paintings are intersections of history and memory as I see them in the built environments of Wisconsin. Viewers will find pieces of their own memories in them that fold these canvas stories into their own historical perspectives.
