Erin Jane Nelson’s practice is grounded in photography sourced from her personal archive of found and original images. She often works serially, with each project delving into new conceptual frameworks as far ranging as regional histories of the Southern barrier islands, formative personal relationships, spirituality as a process of mourning and healing, and science fiction narratives. Through speculative world-building, layering everyday materials, and historical research, her work broadly explores the psychological impact of the climate crisis through a feminist lens. Raised in the American South, Nelson travels throughout the region to photograph her surroundings and lived experiences. She intuitively merges these images onto unexpected support structures—including silk, hand-crafted quilts, panels, and ceramic inspired by vernacular craft objects and the history of collage—their multiple references engaging the nuanced anxiety, conflict, and humor of the present and immediate future. Nelson’s newest works have expanded to include ceramic cameras that the artist creates herself and uses to capture landscape photographs that further emphasize the material and conceptual foundation of her practice.

Erin Jane Nelson (b. 1989, Neenah, WI) lives and works in Santa Fe, NM. In 2011 she received her BFA from The Cooper Union. She has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Georgia, Atlanta; Chapter NY, New York; DOCUMENT, Chicago; and the Atlanta Contemporary Art Center, Atlanta; among others. Her work was included in the 2021 New Museum Triennial and has been included in group exhibitions at the Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Moss Art Center, Virginia Tech; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Aspen Art Museum, Aspen; the Fries Museum in Leeuwarden, NLD; La Galerie, centre d’art contemporain, Noisy-le-Sec; Deli Gallery, New York; Van Doren Waxter, New York; Capital Gallery, San Francisco; and the Pinakothek der Moderne, Munich. Nelson is a recipient of the 2023 Guggenheim Fellowship in the Creative Arts.