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Artwork Description

nieves’ dynamic gestural abstractions extend from a writing practice and the therapeutic potential of movement, composition, and color. A self-taught painter of over a decade, Nieves began making work after a therapist suggested painting might be a somatic path through which the artist could move to overcome the impacts of childhood abuse, particularly emotional suppression. In spite of, or perhaps because of the weightiness of this genesis, Nieves’ paintings often carry an energy of joyful, empowered liberation. Her origin as a self-taught painter also belies the sophistication of her palette and compositions, which are inspired by the work of Joan Mitchell, Cy Twombly, Bernice Bing, Alma Thomas, and Mary Lovelace O’Neal. Nieves’ work also suggests an opportunity to re-assess the type of mark-making that made these older artists so influential. Comfortably announcing her own neuro-divergence, Nieves has related the physicality of her practice to “stimming,” or the repetitive and sometimes compulsive movements many neuro-diverse people engage in to self-soothe. nieves has described this painting as “a response to my fellow citizens wilfully choosing to re-elect a president and incoming administration that will bring destruction and violence (through policy and action) to so many, my own family included. It is a declarative statement, a promise to myself, to my family, friends, & to the communities I belong to. It is also an acknowledgement and recognition of my own ancestors endured the brutality and oppression of enslavement, the Reconstruction Era, and Jim Crow, yet still found ways to not only survive but thrive in their own ways. This work honors that legacy but is also my way of calling out and praying to them (my ancestors)for strength, guidance, and support as we face what’s ahead.”