Installation view of work by Raúl de Nieves, in the 2017 Whitney Biennial
Raúl de Nieves
What does it mean to be an American artist today?
From his basement studio in Ridgewood, Queens, artist Raúl de Nieves creates an epic stained glass mural for the 2017 Whitney Biennial. Born in Mexico, de Nieves immigrated to San Diego at the age of nine and has been living in New York since 2008. “Growing up in Mexico was really magical because I got to see a lot of forms of celebration,” says the artist. “I got to experience death as a really young child. That’s what my work is about: it’s like seeing the facets of happiness and sadness all in one place.”
His commission from the Whitney Museum of American Art gave de Nieves the opportunity to experiment with the tradition of stained glass, and combine this new light-infused installation with existing figurative sculptures. With gaffers tape, paper, and color gels, de Nieves created a narrative that begins with personal struggle and self-doubt, but ends with “a celebration of life.” In reflecting upon his father’s early death and his mother’s courageous decision to move their family to the United States, de Nieves sees the installation as a form of remembrance. “The mural talks about this experience—this journey,” says the artist, “I feel really happy that I could put so much emphasis on this idea of ‘a better tomorrow’ in my artwork.”
This is day 6 of our 30 day creative challenge! To learn more about this 30SAL challenge, click here. Take figures from the painting on the left and put them into the room on the right. Feel free to change space in the composition, and alter figures as you prefer. Artwork 1: Mary Magdalene Healing the …
Every president of the United States selects art for the White House. As our 44th president, Barak Obama and his family proceeded to select art – borrowed from three museums in Washington: the Smithsonian American Art Museum, the Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden and the National Gallery of Art – for the family quarters, east …
[image_with_animation image_url=”8653″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”] Image above from Urban Sketchers Chicago Chris Harvey has a lot of long straight architectural lines in his painting, and no matter what he tried, every pass with the brush resulted in another wobbly line. The wobbles weren’t interesting or expressive, they were distracting from the painting’s quality …
I am thrilled to be showing new work at SAM Gallery! This is a portrait show with six fabulous Seattle artists. I’ll share about the making of these paintings, and post to V. Notes soon. SAM GALLERY PRESENTS: FREE RADICALS JUN 12 – JUL 7 2019 SEATTLE ART MUSEUM SAM GALLERY 10 AM – 5 …
Raúl de Nieves
[image_with_animation image_url=”6644″ alignment=”” animation=”None” box_shadow=”none” max_width=”100%”]
Raúl de Nieves
What does it mean to be an American artist today?
From his basement studio in Ridgewood, Queens, artist Raúl de Nieves creates an epic stained glass mural for the 2017 Whitney Biennial. Born in Mexico, de Nieves immigrated to San Diego at the age of nine and has been living in New York since 2008. “Growing up in Mexico was really magical because I got to see a lot of forms of celebration,” says the artist. “I got to experience death as a really young child. That’s what my work is about: it’s like seeing the facets of happiness and sadness all in one place.”
His commission from the Whitney Museum of American Art gave de Nieves the opportunity to experiment with the tradition of stained glass, and combine this new light-infused installation with existing figurative sculptures. With gaffers tape, paper, and color gels, de Nieves created a narrative that begins with personal struggle and self-doubt, but ends with “a celebration of life.” In reflecting upon his father’s early death and his mother’s courageous decision to move their family to the United States, de Nieves sees the installation as a form of remembrance. “The mural talks about this experience—this journey,” says the artist, “I feel really happy that I could put so much emphasis on this idea of ‘a better tomorrow’ in my artwork.”
Raúl de Nieves (b. 1983, Michoacán, Mexico) lives and works in New York. Learn more about the artist at: https://art21.org/artist/raul-de-nieves/
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