Jill Nahrstedt

Jill Nahrstedt (b.1977 in Omaha, Nebraska) is an artist and curator living and working in Chicago.

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Nahrstedt’s artistic practice encompasses a wide range of media including painting, printmaking, installation and curation. Utilizing electric hues not often found in nature, her paintings and prints knit together memories of time and place. ​

Layers of figures and drips, cacti and pools, architecture and peonies, build up to replicate the depth of experience Nahrstedt draws from to create. Inspired by the ecstatic pleasure found in the most simple, she is propelled forward by the lush textures that build as more time is spent with a piece. Nahrstedt loves a visual journey and wants nothing more than for you to join her.

She has exhibited locally and nationally, and painted murals from Chicago to Hawaii. Over the past decade she has designed and hand printed the Abstracted Neighborhoods series as a way to honor the neighborhoods for which Chicago is well known. After dedicating over twelve years to public service, she now splits her time between her art practice and raising her children.

BFA School of the Art Institute of Chicago
MEd DePaul University

2025 Terrain Exhibition Chicago , IL
2025 Spudnik Press Annex Gallery, Pressed Together, Co-Curator, Chicago, IL
2025 Dankhaus Treffpunkt Gallery, No Ordinary Light, Group Exhibition, Co-Curator, Chicago, IL
2024 Jackson Junge, 10 x 10, Chicago, IL
2024 Evanston Art Center, Faculty Exhibition, Chicago, IL
2024 Dankhaus Treffpunkt Gallery, You Are Invited, Group Exhibition, Curator, Chicago, IL
2023 Jackson Junge, Chicago Works, Chicago, IL
2023 Positive Space Studios, This Is Your Allowance, Curator, Chicago, IL
2023 The Other Art Fair, Juried, Chicago, IL
2023 The Martin, Prints!Prints!Prints!, Juried Group Exhibition, Chicago, IL
2023 St. Louis Artists’ Guild, Beyond Belief, Juried Group Exhibition, St. Louis, MO
2023 The Art Center Highland Park, Freedom, Juried Group Exhibition, Highland Park, IL
2023 Midwest Nice, Nice 1, Juried Group Exhibition, Aberdeen, South Dakota
2022 Arc Studios and Gallery, Face to Face, National Juried Exhibition, San Francisco, CA
2022 Lill Street: Creating Space, Group Exhibition, Chicago, IL
2019 Side Street Studios, Year 7, Elgin, IL
2013 TEAMS Design, 15th Anniversary Local Art Exhibition, Chicago, IL
2011 Milwaukee Avenue Arts Festival, Calling Home, Co-Curator, Chicago, IL