mnartists.org / Celeste Nelms / Buffalo

This morning in my photography class, we took a “field trip” to the other art building (across the street) in order to look at the show of photography from the 2003–04 McKnight Fellowship winners. One of the artists is Celeste Nelms. She used a lot of found objects with her photography. One that I especially enjoyed was titled “Gallery” (I think). It was a little girl’s dollhouse, renovated and then filled with wallet-sized and smaller photographs. They were hung on the walls, they were stored in tiny crates, they were displayed on miniature easels—it was fantastic! The title card is on the outside of the house, which faces the rest of the gallery. In order to look inside the house, one has to walk behind the doll house, which is a very small corner. It was so secluded—and I could smell the wood of the doll house (perhaps Nelms also constructed the doll house?). It was such a good feeling. I want my own doll gallery/house.

Anyway, the above link will take you to her online portfolio. If you live in the Twin Cities area, try to stop by the Nash Gallery on the West Bank of the UMN campus. It is a very impressive photo show!