Liz Nielsen

12 chromogenic photograms on Fujiclear, face-mounted to acrylic

Crystalline Resonance, a 12-part installation by Liz Nielsen, transforms the historic windows of Gridley Chapel into vessels of light, filling the space with luminous color and geometric forms that hover between abstraction and figuration. Nielsen’s photograms are made by layering colored light onto photosensitive material in total darkness, the works merge analog experimentation with celestial, architectural, and natural imagery. Built from timeless shapes including circles, triangles, and squares, the figures suggest benevolent visitors, guardians, or beings composed entirely of light. As sunlight moves through the transparent works, the chapel becomes a living environment of shifting color, contemplation, and transformation.

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About the Artist

Liz Nielsen (b. 1975) is a Hudson Valley, New York–based artist, photographer, and educator known for redefining camera-less photography. Working with photograms, one of photography’s earliest processes, she creates luminous, one-of-a-kind images in the analog color darkroom through a method she calls “light painting,” layering colored light onto photosensitive materials to produce works that balance precision and spontaneity.Nielsen's vibrant compositions range from intimate to monumental in scale, exploring themes of duality, perception, and transformation while bridging art and science. Nielsen has presented solo exhibitions at Miles McEnery Gallery (New York), Black Box Projects (London), SOCO Gallery (Charlotte), and Hexton Gallery (Aspen). Her 2026 projects include Art Everywhere at Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, Manifestations of the Voyage at Grand Central Madison, and Crystalline Resonance at the Wassaic Project.Her work has been featured in Artforum, The New Yorker, The Financial Times, and The New York Times. A recipient of grants from the National Endowment for the Arts and New York State Council on the Arts, she holds degrees from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and the University of Illinois at Chicago. She served as the Georgette and Richard Koopman Distinguished Chair in Photography at Hartford Art School for the 2025–2026 academic year.

liznielsen.com