Artist, curator, writer crystal am nelson explores the complexities of history and identity and their significance to communities. Her research culminates in fictional characters and tableaux that she invents which are based on stories culled from the media and current events and subsequently performed live. Her site-specific interventions are another reaction to the history and geography of a place and its position in the contemporary social and political landscape. Often she will collaborate with other artists, scholars, and the “public-as-experts” to add complexity and richness to her work.
Her residency will expand her original project in the San Francisco Fillmore District that addressed issues of urban renewal and neighborhoods in transition. Adapting her original project to Charlotte’s rapid growth of multi-cultural populations and the subsequent challenging issues of this rapid change will be her focus. In addition, she will run a workshop for UNC-Charlotte College of Arts+Architecture students that explores conceptual art, interventionist art, and social practices.
Crystal Am Nelson received her MFA in photography from San Francisco Art Institute and her BA in English and Identity Studies from the University of Rhode Island. An award-wining artist, she has exhibited both nationally and internationally.
