Nina was born in 1977 in the city of Tupã and a bit later her family moved to the capital of São Paulo when she was still just a baby. As a teenager, she always showed interest in painting and drawing, and, along with a group of friends she met while studying visual communication, Nina experienced the excitement of street painting for the first time along Avenida Tiradentes, in the central of São Paulo.
Distinct from the street art movement defined by protest and antiestablishment messaging, Nina is part of a group that decided to take graffiti to art galleries and museums. Apart from her large public murals, she also creates paintings on canvases, art installations, and objects made with different materials such as latex, resin, plastic, and fabric.
Her first street art pieces were simple letterings—for example, her name in stylized characters—and little by little she moved towards painting the subjects she is most known for today, a series of girls seemingly influenced by characters in comics and anime. She had already been experimenting with these subjects on canvas using simple lines and over time the works became more and more complex and detailed both on canvas and on the walls of the city.
The main themes of her work are images of childhood and of nature. Nina explores the relationship between the innocent gaze of children—portrayed by girls with big wide spaced eyes— and secret feelings mirrored by the soul. The artist also incorporates the beauty in all animals in her art, highlighting insects, fish, and cats in her murals and paintings.
Her objective is to show that we can see life in many ways, and that we can see life through a simpler lens, with more hope and sincerity, and that the same images can have totally different meanings to different people.
You can check out Nina’s newest creations on her Instagram account https://www.instagram.com/ninapandolfo/