Richard-Jonathan Nelson “A Lacquered Egress”

Yossi Milo Gallery

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Multimedia artist Richard-Jonathan Nelson’s (b. 1987; Savannah, GA) tapestries combine Afrofuturist visions with reimagined ideas of handcraft, creating a speculative vision of safety and freedom for his subjects. Nelson’s introduction to textile work came from his family in Savannah, Georgia, where his mother and grandmother taught him to sew. Sewing became an escape, a way for the artist to stitch different materials together to create new worlds that exist outside the Western colonial imagination. Today, the artist uses myriad techniques to create landscapes that are at once familiar and foreign: surreal sceneries that center queer Black bodies in rich floral landscapes, punctuated by brief excerpts of text and images of extraterrestrial exploration. Through his practice of weaving, dyeing, and collage, Nelson envisions a path toward liberation that is both soft and powerful.