Image: Cy Twombly Gallery, The Menil Collection
The Menil Drawing Institute will keep Gladys Nilsson’s site-specific work 'Drawing' on view through August 9, 2026, as part of the museum’s Wall Drawing Series. The installation presents a bustling composition of fantastical hybrid beings gathered around one monumental figure engaged in the act of drawing, extending the series’ focus on direct, temporary interventions in the gallery space.
According to the Menil’s exhibition page, 'Drawing' surrounds the central figure with a garland-like arrangement of black-and-white characters that seem to soar overhead and tangle with one another, while bystanders below, rendered in gentler color tones, observe the scene. The work uses crayon, graphite, acrylic paint and marker pens in a candy-colored palette, and the museum describes it as a whimsical creation that reflects Nilsson’s characteristic humor and levity.
The exhibition sits within the Menil Drawing Institute, which has used the Wall Drawing Series since 2018 to explore new approaches to the form and language of drawing. The series has previously featured work by Marc Bauer, Mel Bochner, Roni Horn, Marcia Kure and Jorinde Voigt. 'Wall Drawing Series: Gladys Nilsson' is curated by Edouard Kopp, the John R. Eckel, Jr. Foundation Chief Curator of the Menil Drawing Institute.
The Menil’s current presentation also situates Nilsson within a broader art-historical context. The museum identifies her as a Chicago-born artist who studied at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and has been the subject of more than 50 solo exhibitions since 1966. Her work has appeared in exhibitions including 'Human Concern/Personal Torment' at the Whitney Museum of American Art, 'Who Chicago?' at Camden Art Center in London, 'Parallel Visions: Modern Artists and Outsider Art' at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, 'Chicago Imagists' at the Madison Museum of Contemporary Art, and 'What Nerve! Alternative Figures in American Art, 1960 to the Present' at the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design.
Nilsson’s practice has also been recognized through major institutional holdings. The Menil notes that her work is represented in collections including the Art Institute of Chicago, the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Milwaukee Art Museum, the Morgan Library, the Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art and the Yale University Art Gallery. She received the 2024 Anonymous Was A Woman Award.
The museum’s exhibition page includes a quotation from Nilsson about the work’s premise: “Everything I’m interested in looking at usually involves the figure in one way or another. I’m always collecting interactions between folks that occur in daily life, and these filter into my work. The title of the piece is simply ‘Drawing.’ The idea is that the main figure is contained in this space, creating these figures, which take a life of their own.” The Menil also lists supporting patrons for the wall drawing, including Scott and Judy Nyquist; Sheila Noeth and Ted Dohmen; Caroline Huber; Leah Bennett; Jane and Bill Curtis; and Barry and Elizabeth Young/UBS Private Wealth Management.
The installation opened on September 5, 2025, and remains on view through August 9, 2026, at the Menil Drawing Institute, 1412 W. Main St. The museum notes that programs are free and open to all, and that the Wall Drawing Series is part of the institute’s ongoing commitment to site-specific drawing commissions.
