Nelson Gallery

*The Nelson Gallery is permanently closed to the public. It's exhibits and programs are continued through the  Jan Shrem and Maria Manetti Shrem Museum of Art, which opened to the public November 13, 2016.*

The Nelson Gallery Logo. The Nelson's current location on Old Davis Road, 2011. Photo by Maverick Bohn. House of Other's Exhibit, 2011. Photo by Uyen Cao. Birds: A Kinetic Installation, 2011. Photo by Maverick Bohn. The Nelson's old location, 2006.

As of 2011, the Nelson Gallery has moved from its original location in the Art Building on the UC Davis campus to its new location in "Nelson Hall". The gallery has taken over the building that used to be the University Club, featuring a larger exhibit.

"THE RICHARD L. NELSON GALLERY was dedicated in 1976 in memory of the first Chairperson of the Department of Art at UC Davis. Established as an exhibition venue and teaching resource for the Art Department, the gallery program also serves the campus population, art communities, and general public of Northern California and the Central Valley. A schedule of three exhibitions and the annual MFA show have an emphasis on contemporary art in support of curriculum in Art and Art History as their main focus. Special attention is paid to building ties across) disciplines within the University and to partnerships with both cultural and non-arts groups outside the University. The exhibition program is supplemented with lectures, publications and other public events. Gallery operations and programs are supported by various donors, program support grants, endowment income from the Nelson Gallery Endowment and the Vesta Endowment Fund, the Department of Art and Art History, and membership in the Nelson Artfriends, a public organization."- Nelson Gallery Website.

Friday tour appointments available! Please contact the Nelson for more information! For current and future exhibits, please visit the Nelson Gallery website!

Past Exhibits:

• "Birds: A Kinetic Installation" by Chico MacMurtrie. MacMurtrie, who resides in Brooklyn, NY, but was a long time resident of San Francisco in the 80s and 90s, is a leader in the field of computer-driven kinetic sculpture. The exhibition featured ten pairs of fabric bird wings that inflate, flap, and deinflate in eerie grace and silence.
• "Are You Destined To Become Your Mother?" by Nathan Cordero. Cordero's form of "rough and tumble" urban style uses many unique objects that have elements of graffiti and hobo art. His work offers glimpses of things in our every day world.
• Out in Space: Sculptures, Drawings, Paintings by Dave Lane - Dave Lane, of Sacramento, uses found and modified agricultural and industrial steel relics of the 20th century to embody his personal cosmology.
• Flatlanders - A regional biennial exhibition curated by Renny Pritikin. This exhibit includes selected artists from the Davis/Winters/Woodland/Sacramento region.
• You See: The Early Years of the UC Davis Studio Art Faculty - Between 1959 and 1962 Richard L. Nelson brought together a legendary faculty built around the participation of Robert Arneson, Roy De Forest, Manuel Neri, Wayne Thiebaud, and William T. Wiley. You See: The Early Years of the UC Davis Studio Art Faculty includes work from the collection of the campus gallery named in Nelson’s honor in 1976.
• Horwinski Poster Show - link to a blog discussing this exhibit.

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I think it's better not to have info. about current gallery shows on this page since one click away is the official site with the same info. Why duplicate it? Why spend the time and effort to do so? There's also greater chance of errors in a copy, and there's always the time-sync problem. The DavisWiki works best for info. that changes slowly (annually) or exists nowhere else, or at least in not such a clear form. If another site has clear and useful info., let them do it. —SteveDavison