Meet Nellie King Solomon | Artist / Painter

We had the good fortune of connecting with Nellie King Solomon and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nellie, what do you want people to remember about you?
I want to be known for having made brilliant paintings. Paintings with depth, beauty, and impact that hits you in your chest the moment you walk in a room. I want to be known for having lived a happy, if not a little renegade path, forging my way raising my kid on my own, striking a balance living joyfully while making work at a top level. I want my legacy to help finally eradicate that bygone era of the toxic male dysfunctional self-destructive misery breading the “best artist”. I’d like my life and work to elevate young women artist who are told they have to choose between having a kid or making great work. Do both.

Let’s talk shop? Tell us more about your career, what can you share with our community?
I’m most excited about “Mercurochrome-Oppenheimer’s Garden” a series I’m in the middle of in my studio at the Bendix Building. The work is about to be blown up huge on vinyl 60 feet long and 10 feet high at 751 Fairfax at Melrose, LA.

This work summons a Baroque hidden garden I grew up running in on the Pacific Ocean Stinson Beach, that once belonged to Haakon & Barbara Chevalier, the Communist best friends of Oppenheimer. Oppenheimer would return to this garden to think about what he had done. Often, I’d fall in this garden and skin my knee. My father put Mercurochrome a fluorescent orange-pink antiseptic on my cuts.
I paint toxic beauty in the exploded field.
Making the invisible visible.
Ornament is crime, I’m criminal.

It’s my responsibility to get through all the to-do lists in life to make space and quiet time in the studio, focus my energy and go beyond, to make a painting of all it. At my best, when I’m in the zone, I don’t feel it’s me who is making these things. Humbly, I feel it’s my job to channel what I’m meant to make.

Let’s say your best friend was visiting the area and you wanted to show them the best time ever. Where would you take them? Give us a little itinerary – say it was a week long trip, where would you eat, drink, visit, hang out, etc.
Haha. This did happen and we did do a bunch of things on this list: Well, we’d definitely eat at Gjusta in Venice, jump in the Pacific at Tower 24 diving up through the waves as they crest, then we’d get a drink with our feet in the sand at Perrie’s Santa Monica, go surfing at Doheny (south of LA there’s a super flattering easy wave that jacks-up while you’re on it), paddle around in the swan boats on Echo Park Lake (noticing a water theme), go up to Malibu for seafood, Topanga horseback riding on the ridge, if there are teenage girls involved we’d go digging in the Goodwill bins in Glendale (they like to up-cycle clothing), go K1 go-kart racing in Burbank, rollerskating Moonlight Rollerway in rollerskating in Glendale, Shabbat Hancock Park on Friday night, and of course we’d check out Curate LA and see what art exhibitions to see that week.
It would be a ridiculously busy week. I Love LA.

Shoutout is all about shouting out others who you feel deserve additional recognition and exposure. Who would you like to shoutout?
I want to give a Shoutout to: Natasha Boas, Marialidia Marcotulli, Daniela Sobernan, my mother Barbara Stauffacher Solomon, and the late art critic Kenneth Baker.

Website: Www.NellieKingsolomon.com

Instagram: @nelliekingsolomon

Facebook: nelliekingsolomon

Image Credits
Image Credit Daniela Soberman