Art Gala – Oaxaca Period at the Princess Theatre

Prosser’s Nelson Gallery hosts “Their Oaxaca Period” in the Green Room from April 7-June 2026, featuring works by William and Eleanor Nelson produced between 1957 and 1959 in Oaxaca, Mexico. The paintings they produced are notable for rich, vibrant colors and, in many cases, heavy, palette-knife texturing. The couple avoided stereotypical depictions of life in Mexico, preferring to capture what they observed in the streets, farms, foothills and work-a-day faces of the residents of rural, southern Mexico at that time.

This showing is both an homage to the earlier roots of the Nelsons’ half-century journey through the world of art, but is a reminder that the United States and Mexico have coexisted in harmony and mutual benefit for a very long time, despite various bumps along the way.

While most of these pieces were created in the vicinity of Oaxaca, several from other locales – painted in and around that same period – have also been included. In addition, their son, gallery owner James Nelson, will display one of his own works with a similar tropical tone: a quasi-abstract floral tryptic.

All paintings on display are available for purchase, with 25% of each sale remaining with the Princess Theatre to benefit the organization’s projects and programs.