Vulgar and vibrant, elongated and exaggerated, Gladys Nilsson’s whimsical watercolor depictions of the human figure have made her a distinctive voice. A Chicago native, Nilsson (b. 1940) attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, where she received her B.F.A. degree in 1962. Along with her husband and fellow artist Jim Nutt, Nilsson helped found the collective The Hairy Who, six individual artists who exhibited together and created artwork in close proximity to the Chicago Imagists in the 1960s. Her style encapsulates the idea of play, manipulating the figure in a way described by art critic Lisa Stein as “...a continuous parade of chaotic images." After moving to Sacramento, California in 1969 for a brief period, Nilsson found a home for her artwork at the former Candy Store Gallery in Folsom, California, along with other artists including UC Davis first-generation faculty Roy De Forest and Robert Arneson.