Nelly Drell

Nelly Drell is an Estonian artist. She was born October 19, 1979, in Tallinn.
As a child she was interested in art and while studying in Pelgulinna Secondary School she participated in extracurricular activities at the Kullo Art Centre and Kevade Street Art School. After graduating high school she carried on studying painting in 1998-2000 at the Estonian Academy of Arts. She studied at Miami University from 2000 to 2001 where she received her bachelor's degree and from 2001 to 2003 at the New York Academy of Art where she gained a master's degree in painting.
Drell experiments with different art styles. Her paintings include styles varying from baroque to classic. Her subjects include at the a combination of sports events, historical scenes and landscapes. Usage of art form and choice of motives are varying but she remains primarily focused on (harmonically depicted) people.
Drell has exhibited her paintings since 1995 at dozens of group and personal exhibitions. In 2001 she won the Miami International Fine Arts College Young Visual Artist Award and in 2008 the SMV-prize in the Estonian Artists Union’s annual exhibition.
From 2005 she has been a member of the Estonian Artists' Union.
Critical reception
"She looks like a blonde Miss World finalist and paints like a jaded academic. I think of Drell as a born illustrator and a born painter, an artist for whom, by her very nature, academic studies and plaster drawing are ideal - an exceptionally rare quality among artists of her age."
Harry Liivrand (art historian)
"She is able to mould an image even with the most erratic of brush strokes, lend it depth with the gentle tempering of tonalities, and what is most important - bestow on the image a sense of well-heeled cogency. Drell does not obfuscate her visions in a tactful or delicate artistic fog: she paints them with a pitiless honesty."
Johannes Saar (art critic)

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