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John Nelson’s artwork revolves around a personal language of symbols and archetypes. The subject of the work changes from piece to piece, but the core stems from a long developed personal lexicon. If there’s a theory behind John Randall Nelson’s work, it’s semiotics: the theory of signs. In semiotic theory images can function like words in a sentence, the meaning of each image dependent on how it is paired with other symbols. His work touches on Neo-Expressionism and American Folk Art, emphasizing simplified images. For Nelson, the unconscious is like a reservoir; themes emerge, some that are humorous, others that are cryptic and vague.