Photo Credit: Ruth Fremson/The New York Times.
BIO
Lazarus Nazario is a native New York artist and self-described provocateur grappling with American history. She creates paintings and drawings in oil and mixed media that explore themes of subversion, identity and social order. She is also known for “hijacking” bus shelters throughout New York City with her social justice public art campaigns.
“Lazarus’ artistic voice is clear, uncompromising, thoughtful and yet playful and inspiring. She manages to take a stand in her work with wit and passion, a rare combination, and also manages to incorporate a respect for the humanity of her subjects and audience. ”
Growing up, she frequently experienced racism. As a light-skinned Puerto Rican - passing as white from time to time - enabled her to experience both perspectives and differences in treatment, which heavily influences her work to this day.
In 2005 Nazario received a grant from the George Sugarman Foundation to create work influenced by the Iraq War. This led her to rethink the way she approached her painting practice and to adopt the moniker Black Market Devotional Propaganda— paintings that subvert the messages of ad campaigns and religious art.
Lazarus Nazario has exhibited across the United States, including Visible: Latinx Artists In Focus, at the Newark Museum of Art in NJ and in Atlanta, GA at the Mason Maurer Fine Art Center for Learn, Promote, Defend: The Center for Civil Human Rights. Her experience as a stagehand with prominent artists inspired her to think outside the box with her art, and continues to inform her art practice today.
Her award-winning work was exhibited at the National Academy of Design as well as the National Arts Club in NY. She also collaborated with Tandem NYC on a poster for Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez’s Green New Deal Series.
She has taught at Snug Harbor Cultural Center and Wagner College in NY. In 2006 Nazario received an Original Work Grant from the NY State Council on the Arts & Humanities of Staten Island, where she currently lives & works.
“ Political and spiritual, not many make that connection and make it sing.
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MY MISSION
“I’ve been exploring the complex relationship a woman has with her inner self, the existential dilemmas— and how these transform her view of the world around her in paint for over 20 years. Painting is the bridge that reconciles the outside world with my inner one. ”
My figurative paintings are characterized by a dark, graphic sensibility. I’m an instinctive subversive. I build up a dialogue with paint and uncover images that surface. The intense color, versatility and permanence of oil paint make it a perfect fit for what I need to say.
I start a work of art differently almost every time. I begin with an idea or an image, and it can come from anywhere - a book, a lover, an ad, an intense feeling that won’t go away. It can be a need to right a wrong or flesh out a moment in history and express feelings of trauma, but there’s always a point of view to uncover.
I work towards controlled chaos, adding as many layers as I sometimes scrape away. I’m discerning, but not judgmental with my work. I consider it finished when I can feel it breathe and it asks more questions than it answers.
Within all my works, I enjoy hiding messages in plain sight and challenging the validity of the status quo. It isn’t enough for me to make a pretty picture, it has to say something, too. The ultimate goal is becoming transparent to transcendence. When you look at my work you see through it an emotion that you can relate to or identify with.
It’s this transformative experience that I work to give back to the viewer.
“I have admired her ability to use her work both as reflection her inner self while also serving as a signpost which can point the way forward for others.”