Aliza Nisenbaum
Summer Series Speaker
Born in Mexico City, Aliza Nisenbaum makes portrait paintings that are manifestations of exchanges with her subjects over time. Collaborating with communities, she employs the focused attention of observational painting to create the conditions for close-looking. Distinct social groups are foregrounded, including immigrant communities, dancers, members of grassroot organizations, subway, airport, and health workers. Nisenbaum engages with these groups on various levels, sharing resources, skills and ultimately, through the intimacy of portraiture as social representation. Through lengthy engagement with her subjects, the artist gains a deeper understanding of individual and collective histories, and accords a dignity to the exchange– that exceeds the space of portraiture. Often lushly decorated with patterned textiles found in her sitter’s homes and tiles from workplace settings, Nisenbaum makes visible the material conditions, friendships and alliances of particular work and leisure environments.
In June 2026, a 70ft mural by Nisenbaum will be unveiled at the Obama Presidential Center in Chicago, IL. From September 2023 through August 2024, Nisenbaum’s work was featured at the Metropolitan Opera House. Curated by Dodie Kazanjian, the four paintings at the Met chronicle Nisenbaum’s year-long relationship with the “Divas” (singers) of the opera La Traviata, as well as the support staff, essential to the House’s operation. At the end of May 2024, the artist unveiled a commissioned mosaic by the Queens Museum and LaGuardia Airport, at the airport’s new Terminal C. Nisenbaum’s mural focuses on sixteen Delta and Port Authority employees, including service providers who keep the terminal running smoothly each day. The work is based on a painting that includes pilots, flight attendants, police officers, firefighters, customer service agents, Urban Pathways staff (homeless outreach), taxi dispatchers, and individuals working in facilities and maintenance. Together, these employees represent the strength and diversity of the Delta and Port Authority community; as individuals, their dynamic poses and convey their unique personalities and indelible contributions to their workplace.
In April 2023, Nisenbaum had her first institutional exhibition in New York City at the Queens Museum entitled Queens: Lindo y Querido, Adapted from the popular Vincente Fernández song “Mexico, Lindo y Querido”— translated as “Mexico, Beautiful and Beloved” — the exhibition title highlights Nisenbaum’s personal and artistic relationships to the sitters and their environments, with careful attention to the expressive aspects of material life (textiles, domestic objects etc.) reflecting what people value and share. . The artist’s involvement with the residents of Corona, Queens started in 2012 when she volunteered for Immigrant Movement International, led by artist Tania Bruguera. Nisenbaum taught a feminist art history class there at Immigrant Movement International, as a way of teaching English to students; an experience which led to a series of portraits of the students and their families. These relationships span a decade of the artist’s involvement in Queens, where she continues to live and work. In 2021, Nisenbaum’s portraits of salsa music and dance communities in Kansas City were the subject of the city’s Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art’s sixth annual Atrium Project. Throughout 2020 and 2021, Nisenbaum communicated with the musicians and dancers via video from her studio. Their conversations resulted in portraits that embody the personality, interests, and energy of each individual, and their relationship to salsa. In 2020-2021, Nisenbaum’s solo exhibition at the Tate Liverpool featured a series of portraits of UK healthcare workers, made during the Covid 19 pandemic, through extensive interviews.
Aliza’s work has been included in notable group exhibitions: The Hirshhorn Collection Exhibition (2024), The Art in Embassies Program in Switzerland and Portugal, FLAG Art Foundation, Milwaukee Art Museum, Gwangju Biennial (2023), the ICA Boston; the Renaissance Society, Chicago; the Museu de Arte de São Paulo; the Drawing Center, NY; the New Britain Museum, CT; and the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. She has also presented her work at The Whitney Biennial, NY, The Biennial of the Americas; the MCA, Denver; and the Rufino Tamayo Painting Biennial in Mexico City.
Her work is in the permanent collections of the Tate, the Aishti Foundation, The Art Institute of Chicago, The Hirshhorn Museum, The ICA Boston, The Kemper Museum of Art, The Rennie Museum, The Minneapolis Institute of Art, The Toledo Museum of Art, The Smart Museum, The MCA San Diego, the Whitney Museum of American art, the Queens Museum, among others both private and public. She is represented by Anton Kern Gallery in NY and Regen Projects in LA.
