Although she was born in Leominster, Massachusetts in 1989 and is currently based in Brooklyn, artist Naudline Cluvie Pierre spends much of her time thinking of 15th, 16th, and 17th century Europe. “I’m looking back in time and using aspects of paintings made by people who are dead and gone, people who definitely did not make those paintings for me to look at much less consume, understand, and enjoy,” she says.
Rather than turn a blind eye to an art history which has done just that to her, Pierre is using the canvas to reclaim figurative language, creating works that are rich in colour and often place herself in their centres, surrounded by mythological figures such as angels and demons. “I’m making it my own through colour, texture, my own stories, and by inserting my own body,” she says. “As a painter using oil paint, I feel very engaged in the rich legacy of that material, which is the start of my co-opting a classical language.”
Recently, Pierre’s works became part of the Perez Art Museum Miami’s permanent collection, and she was the youngest artist to show at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago’s ongoing group show Prisoner of Love, which also features Arthur Jafa, Kerry James Marshall, Robert Mapplethorpe. Next up is a solo show at ShulamitNazarian gallery in Los Angeles, and Pierre says she’s also looking forward to “making bigger paintings, and going deeper into the alternate world” she’s created in her work.
Ashleigh Kane