JANUARY 9 – FEBRUARY 28, 2024

Opening Reception with the Artist
Tuesday, January 9, 5 - 7PM

SOCO Gallery is pleased to announce the opening of She LOVES me…, a solo exhibition by artist Liz Nielsen. The gallery will host a public opening reception with the artist on January 9th from 5 - 7 PM in SOCO Annex. This will be the artist’s fourth solo exhibition with the gallery.

In She LOVES me…, Nielsen will present small scale one-of-a-kind photograms, implementing a new technique by hand. Building upon her “light-painting” technique, as she calls it, the artist has combined both drawing and painting into her practice. More representational compositions will be seen in the exhibition where Nielsen’s drawn patterns create shape and texture within her work. As the artist has recently been making predominantly large, abstract compositions, these light paintings are an important shift in her oeuvre – both in scale and style.

Nielsen’s innovative approach upends the traditional method of analog photography as she carefully orchestrates the exposure of light-sensitive paper to different light sources and handmade negative shapes. Working without a camera, the darkroom is where all of Nielsen’s “painting” occurs as she meticulously plays with light to create each unique work.

She LOVES me… is envisioned as a flower shop – the title is in reference to the popular phrase and game in which a person removes the petals of a flower one by one while speaking the words “she loves me, she loves me not.” Nielsen created still-life inspired works that are each luscious botanical groupings abundant with color and texture. The photograms will be hung around the annex both on the walls and on shelves, allowing the viewer to feel as if they are entering a lush, floral store.

Nielsen describes each still life as an intimate work, where light and love act both as ethereal mediums – particles and waves which we cannot touch, but sense internally and feel strongly. With this in mind, the artist is not only “painting with light,” but also with love, making every work akin to a bouquet of flowers given to a loved one as a thoughtful gift – a special, highly curated object symbolic of affection.

Liz Nielsen (American, B. 1975)

Liz Nielsen (b. 1975, American) is an experimental photographer based in New York’s Hudson Valley. She received her Master of Fine Arts from the University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL, her Bachelor of Fine Arts from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, and her Bachelor of Arts from Seattle University, Seattle, WA. Nielsen’s innovative practice upends the traditional method of analog photography. Working in the darkroom, she exposes light sensitive paper and processes it through conventional photographic chemicals, creating “light-paintings” by way of camera-less photography. Taking shapes from landforms, her photograms depict an evanescent moment of an unnamed place, giving rise to conversations of temporality, transformation, and the physical world.

Recent solo exhibitions include Danziger Gallery, Los Angeles, CA; Miles McEnery Gallery, New York, NY; Black Box Projects, London, United Kingdom; 12.26 Gallery, Dallas, TX, and SOCO Gallery, Charlotte, NC.