resume ‹ Nelson Public Art

Education

1996 MFA, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ

Teaching

2018 Adjunct faculty, Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ

2009-18 Adjunct faculty, Phoenix College, Phoenix, AZ

Public Art Projects and Public Sculpture (selected)

2025 “Whisper Glyphs” (Sculpture) sited in Tempe, AZ.

2025 “Pink Lotus” (Sculpture and Mural) sited in Mesa, AZ.

2025 “Tree of Life” (Streetscape) sited in Phoenix, AZ.

2023 “Duck, Duck, Goose” (Streetscape) sited in Glendale, AZ.

2022 “Squash Blossom” (Sculpture) sited in Tempe, AZ.

2022 “Signs and Cyphers” (Streetscape) sited in Reno, NV.

2021 “Signs and Symbols” (Sculpture) sited in Tempe, AZ.

2021 “Yip Yip Yip” (Sculpture) sited in Petaluma, CA.

2020 “Wolf Moon” (Sculpture) sited in Avondale, AZ.

2020 “Cairns Garden” (Sculpture and Paintings) sited in Tempe, AZ.

2020 “Birdsong for Wiley” (Sculpture) sited in Peoria, AZ.

2020 “Burrowed Owl” (Sculpture) sited in Ontario, CA.

2019 “Wild Bill Bison” (Sculpture) sited in Superior, CO.

2019 “White Fish” (Sculpture) sited in Whitefish, MT.

2019 “Flora, Fauna, Humana” (Transit Station Installation) sited in Mesa, AZ.

2019 “45 Haikus” (Streetscape) sited in Mesa, AZ.

2018 “One-eyed Jack” ( Sculpture) sited in Scottsdale, AZ.

2018 “Elemental Jack” ( Sculpture) sited in Chandler, AZ.

2016 “Bike Path Framers” (Functional Sculpture) sited at the Scottsdale Waterfront, Scottsdale, AZ

2012-14 “Matthew Henson Hope Gardens” (Shade structures, steel gates. benches and fences)

sited at Matthew A. Henson/Hope VI Housing Projects, Phoenix, AZ

2011 “Anthropomorphic Bicycle” sited at the Scottsdale Center for the Arts, Scottsdale, AZ

2010 “Oon Only” (Sculptural Weathervane), sited at Mitchell Park East roundabouts, Tempe, AZ

“Dingo” (Sculptural Weathervane), sited at Mitchell Park East roundabouts, Tempe, AZ

2008 “La Memoria Vive” (Streetscape) sited at Sky Harbor Airport, Phoenix, AZ

“Seven Dingbats” (Wall Sculpture) sited at the Max and Lucy Building, Phoenix, AZ

2007 “A Sterling World” (Ceramic Mural) sited at the SARRC campus, Phoenix, AZ

“World O’ El Futuro” (Painting) sited at Bio 5 Building, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

2005 “On Broadway Road” (Streetscape) sited on Broadway Road, Tempe, AZ

2004 “Hop” (Sculpture/Benches) sited at Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Phoenix, AZ

“Unity/Diversity” (Transit Shelter/Bus Stop) sited at Marcos De Niza High, Tempe, AZ

2002 “Black Birds” (Steel Gates and Sculpture) sited at the Wells Fargo Bank, Tempe, AZ

“West Bliss” (Streetscape), sited at Queen Creek, AZ

2000 “Tribes Of Israel” (Mural) sited at Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus, Scottsdale, AZ

1999 “Chasing Zoe” (Streetscape) sited at Mill Avenue and Broadway Road, Tempe, AZ

1998 “Harry Above the Crowd” (Sculpture) sited at the Tempe City Hall, Tempe, AZ

1996 “Grid Iron Hero” (Sculpture) sited at Sky Harbor Airport, Tempe, AZ

Public and Corporate Collections (selected)

Phoenix Public Art and Design, City of Phoenix, Phoenix, AZ

BIO 5, University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ

Apple Inc., Cupertino, CA

Fennemore-Craig, Phoenix, AZ

Nordstrom Inc., Seattle, WA

Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Scottsdale, AZ

Phoenix Children’s Hospital, Phoenix, AZ

Wells Fargo Bank, Tempe, AZ

City of Queen Creek, Queen Creek, AZ

Ina Levine Jewish Community Campus, Scottsdale, AZ

Arizona State University, Tempe AZ

The Tamarind Institute, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, NM

Brigham Young University, Provo, UT

The United States Postal Service, Washington, DC

Sky Harbor International Airport, Phoenix, AZ

The Perrier Corporation, Villaines La Juhel, Mayenne, France

Haarmann-Reimer GMbH, Holzminder, Germany

Chemical Bank, New York, New York.

Tempe Municipal Arts Commission, Tempe, AZ

Intel Corporation, Phoenix, AZ

The Carter Center at Emory University, Atlanta, Georgia

Borland International, Los Gatos, CA

The Disney Corporation, Los Angeles, CA

Midwestern State University, Print Collection, Wichita Falls, TX

State University of New York, Print Collection, Buffalo, NY

The Printmaking Workshop, Print Collection, New York, NY

Museum of American Folk Art, New York, NY

Kallish, Forrester, and Torres, Phoenix, AZ

Target Corporation, Minneapolis, MN

Solo Exhibitions (selected)

2020 “John Randall Nelson”, Gebert Contemporary, Scottsdale, AZ,

2018 “An American Vernacular” Windgate Gallery, University of Arkansas, Fort Smith, AR

“Signs & Ciphers” Gebert Contemporary, Scottsdale, AZ

2017 “Weird West” FP Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA

“An Animate Brand of Mobility” Sue Greenwood Fine Art, Laguna Beach, CA

“Weird West” Eye Lounge, Phoenix, AZ

2016 “60/30/15 … Melange” Gebert Contemporary, Scottsdale, AZ

“60/30/15 … Melange” Eye Lounge, Phoenix, AZ

2015 “Flowered” Andrea Schwartz Gallery, San Francisco, CA

“Flowered” Gebert Contemporary, Scottsdale, AZ

“Words Are Meaningless” Modified Arts, Phoenix, AZ

“Bobo & Friends” Eye Lounge, Phoenix, AZ

2014 “Polka Dots for Holly Solomon” FP Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA

“Phallic Affirmations” Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson, AZ

2013 “Polka Dots for Holly Solomon” Gebert Contemporary, Scottsdale, AZ

“Affirmations”. FP Contemporary,Los Angeles, CA

2012 “Recent Paintings” Grover/Thurston Gallery, Seattle, WA

“Fraught, Simply Fraught, with Narrative”. Conduit Gallery, Dallas, TX

“1996-2011: 15 Years of Art-making”, Vault Gallery, Arizona State University, PHX, AZ

2011 “New Works” Stremmel Gallery, Reno, NV

“Alter-native Signs”, Gebert Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

“New Works” Grover/Thurston Gallery, Seattle, WA

2010 “Crossing Aesthetic Borders”, Gebert Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

“American Curious”, Stremmel Gallery, Reno, NV

“Small Works”, Gebert Contemporary, Santa Fe, NM

2009 “Alchemical Alphabets”, Gebert Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

“New Works” Grover/Thurston Gallery, Seattle, WA

“Alchemical Alphabets”, Gebert Contemporary, Scottsdale, AZ

2008 “New Works”, Andrea Schwartz Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2007 “New Works”, Grover/Thurston Gallery, Seattle, WA

“Short-Lived”, Bentley Projects, Phoenix, AZ

2006 “Flower”, Bentley Gallery, Scottsdale, AZ

“Flower”, Grover Thurston Gallery, Seattle, WA

2005 “Vacancy”, Bentley Projects, Phoenix, AZ

“Vacancy”, Andrea Schwartz Gallery, San Francisco, CA

2004 “New Religions”, Chiaroscuro Gallery, Santa Fe, NM

“New Religions”, Gallery Materia, Scottsdale, AZ

2003 “Played” Marguerite Oestreicher, New Orleans, LA

“100 Works”, Vanier Galleries, Scottsdale, AZ

“From AZ to CA”, Solomon Dubnick, Sacramento, CA

2001 “Signs and Ciphers”, Vanier Galleries, Tucson, AZ

Group Exhibitions (selected)

2019 “Seattle Art Fair”, FP Contemporary, Seattle, WA

“Chaos Theory ‘19”, Legend City, Phoenix, AZ

2018 “LA Art Show”, FP Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA

2017 “CONTEXT Art Miami”, FP Contemporary, Miami, FL

“Xhibition”, Tempe Center for the Arts, Tempe, AZ

“Bill Braun, Jerry Iverson, and John Randall Nelson”, Stremmel Gallery, Reno, NV

“LA Art Show”, FP Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA

2016 “Chaos Theory ‘16”, Legend City, Phoenix, AZ

“Story Tellers”, Sue Greenwood Fine Arts, Laguna Beach, CA

“LA Art Show”, FP Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA

“CONTEXT Art Miami”, FP Contemporary, Miami, FL

2015 “Self-Made, 15 years of Eye Lounge”, Vision Gallery, Chandler, AZ

“LA Art Show”, FP Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA

2014 “LA Art Show”, FP Contemporary, Los Angeles, CA

“Strange Botany” Conrad Wilde Gallery, Tucson, AZ

2012 “Wood Biennial”, Tempe Center for the Arts, Tempe, AZ