Dona Nelson, "Phigor," 2014, installation view. Photo Andreas Vesterlund, courtesy the artist and Thomas Erben Gallery, New York.
Dona Nelson’s abstract two-sided paintings are some of the most swooned-over works on the most talked-about floor of the current Whitney Biennial. A concurrent gallery show presents eight canvases (five of which have a front and a back), raised a few inches off the floor with metal stands or, in the case of Phigor, the largest work, pushed out from the wall by tubes, allowing enough space for a viewer to pass behind it. Nelson’s aggressive allover painting style incorporates materials ranging from thinned acrylic pours, strips of dyed cheesecloth and tangles of thread.