Naudline Cluvie Pierre (born 1989), is an American visual artist working primarily in oil painting and drawing. Pierre's work incorporates traditional art historical references such as Renaissance portraiture, religious iconography, and figuration to create vibrant compositions. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

Early life and education

Naudline Pierre was born in 1989 in Leominster, Massachusetts. Pierre is the offspring of Haitian immigrants to the United States, her father is a church minister, and religious storytelling as well as Biblical narratives were ever-present while the artist was growing up. Pierre received an MFA degree from the

New York Academy of Art The New York Academy of Art is a private art school in Tribeca, New York City. The academy offers a Master of Fine Arts degree with a focus on technical training and critical discourse as well as a Post-baccalaureate Certificate of Fine Art. The ...

, New York City (2017), and a BFA degree from

Andrews University Andrews University is a private Seventh-day Adventist university in Berrien Springs, Michigan. Founded in 1874 as Battle Creek College, it was the first higher education facility started by Seventh-day Adventists and is the flagship universit ...

, a Christian liberal arts school in Michigan. In a 2020 interview, Pierre elected

Toni Morrison Chloe Anthony Wofford Morrison (born Chloe Ardelia Wofford; February 18, 1931 – August 5, 2019), known as Toni Morrison, was an American novelist. Her first novel, ''The Bluest Eye'', was published in 1970. The critically acclaimed '' So ...

's ''Sula'' and ''Song of Solomon'' as well as

Octavia E. Butler Octavia Estelle Butler (June 22, 1947 – February 24, 2006) was an American science fiction author and a multiple recipient of the Hugo and Nebula awards. In 1995, Butler became the first science-fiction writer to receive a MacArthur Fellowshi ...

's the Parable of the Sower as influential readings.

Work

In 2019, Pierre presented the solo show ''For I Am With You Until the End of Time'' at Shulamit Nazarian gallery, in Los Angeles. Her interest in

Christian iconography Iconography, as a branch of art history, studies the identification, description and interpretation of the content of images: the subjects depicted, the particular compositions and details used to do so, and other elements that are distinct fro ...

and celestial bodies were central in the content of the exhibition. Pierre's solo institutional solo debut ''What Could Be Has Not Yet Appeared'' took stage at the

Dallas Museum of Art The Dallas Museum of Art (DMA) is an art museum located in the Arts District of downtown Dallas, Texas, along Woodall Rodgers Freeway between St. Paul and Harwood. In the 1970s, the museum moved from its previous location in Fair Park to the Art ...

, Texas, in 2021. The one-person exhibition presenting nine large-scale paintings made between 2017 and 2021 touched on intimacy, the female body and care through celestial figures and altars. In the exhibition review, ''

Frieze Magazine ''frieze'' is a contemporary art magazine, published eight times a year from London. History ''frieze'' was founded in 1991 by Frieze Art Fair founders Amanda Sharp and Matthew Slotover with artist Tom Gidley. A Damien Hirst butterfly painting ...

'' critic Logan Lockner places Pierre's work between

Fra Angelico Fra Angelico (born Guido di Pietro; February 18, 1455) was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance, described by Vasari in his '' Lives of the Artists'' as having "a rare and perfect talent".Giorgio Vasari, ''Lives of the Artists''. Pengu ...

frescoes Fresco (plural ''frescos'' or ''frescoes'') is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaste ...

and the canvases of late

Afro-Cuban Afro-Cubans or Black Cubans are Cubans of West African ancestry. The term ''Afro-Cuban'' can also refer to historical or cultural elements in Cuba thought to emanate from this community and the combining of native African and other cultural ele ...

painter

Belkis Ayón Belkis Ayón (23 January 1967 – 11 September 1999) was a Cuban printmaker who specialized in the technique of collography. Ayón created large, highly-detailed allegorical collagraphs based on Abakuá, a secret, all-male Afro-Cuban society. Her ...

. Pierre's inaugural exhibition in New York was at the James Cohan gallery in 2022. The exhibition ''Naudline Pierre: Enter the Realm'' occupying the two spaces the gallery owns in the

Tribeca Tribeca (), originally written as TriBeCa, is a neighborhood in Lower Manhattan in New York City. Its name is a syllabic abbreviation of "Triangle Below Canal Street". The "triangle" (more accurately a quadrilateral) is bounded by Canal Stre ...

neighborhood. In the show, oil painted biblical motifs and large scale triptych panels were combined with objects. Pierre joined James Cohan gallery, New York, in 2021. In 2023, the solo exhibition and accompanying publication ''This Is Not All There Is'' at the

Drawing Center The Drawing Center is a Manhattan, New York, museum and a nonprofit exhibition space that focuses on the exhibition of drawings, both historical and contemporary. History The Drawing Center was founded by former assistant curator of drawings at ...

, New York, featuring her signature world-building imagery on paper, attracted extensive media attention. The

Art Gallery of Ontario The Art Gallery of Ontario (AGO; french: Musée des beaux-arts de l'Ontario) is an art museum in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. The museum is located in the Grange Park neighbourhood of downtown Toronto, on Dundas Street West between McCaul and Beve ...

in Toronto, Canada, organized the solo presentation Written in the Sky in 2023 and the large scale three-panel painting large-scale of same name produced in 2022 was acquired by the institution in 2024. According to the institutional statement, this acquision was a joint effort between the Arts of Global Africa and the Diaspora and European Art departments. The artist's work has been included in group exhibitions at major art events and institutions including shows at the Prospect.5, New Orleans, the

Pérez Art Museum Miami The Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM)—officially known as the Jorge M. Pérez Art Museum of Miami-Dade County—is a contemporary art museum that relocated in 2013 to the Museum Park in Downtown Miami, Florida. Founded in 1984 as the Center for t ...

, the

Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago The Museum of Contemporary Art (MCA) Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary ...

, and at the

Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art opened in 1994 in Kansas City, Missouri. With a $5 million annual budget and approximately 75,000 visitors each year, it is Missouri's first and largest contemporary museum. Founders The core of the museum's perm ...

, Kansas City,

Hammer Museum The Hammer Museum, which is affiliated with the University of California, Los Angeles, is an art museum and cultural center known for its artist-centric and progressive array of exhibitions and public programs. Founded in 1990 by the entrepreneur- ...

, Los Angeles, the

California African American Museum The California African American Museum (CAAM) is a museum located in Exposition Park, Los Angeles, California, United States. The museum focuses on enrichment and education on the cultural heritage and history of African Americans with a focus o ...

, among others.

Artistic practice

Pierre's oil paintings within her body of work are often addressed as fantastical and otherworldly due to its use of warm colors and depiction of celestial-like bodies and commentary on

Western art history The art of Europe, or Western art, encompasses the history of visual art in Europe. European prehistoric art started as mobile Upper Paleolithic rock and cave painting and petroglyph art and was characteristic of the period between the Paleo ...

and vernacular of figurative painting. In a 2019 interview for ''

Juxtapoz Magazine ''Juxtapoz Art & Culture Magazine'' (pronounced ''JUX-tah-pose'') is a magazine created in 1994 by a group of artists and art collectors including Robert Williams, Fausto Vitello, C.R. Stecyk III (a.k.a. Craig Stecyk), Greg Escalante, and Eric ...

'', Pierre stated, "there are moments in my painting practice when I focus on a specific thought. I daydream about what I want for my life and for the lives of those I love. I cry and I laugh at memories, too. And I always, always express gratitude. I'm essentially leaving remnants of those thoughts in the paint, in the texture and in the intention of it all."

Artworks in notable collections

Pierre's work has entered international museum collections in the United States and abroad. * ''Close Quarters'', 2018. Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida * ''Don’t You Let Me Down, Don’t You Let Me Go'', 2021. Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, Florida * ''Eternal Depth of Love Divine'', . Nasher Museum of Art at Duke University, North Carolina * ''Lest You Fall'', 2019. Dallas Museum of Art, Texas * ''Soft and Fragile'', 2019. Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Missouri''Soft and Fragile'', 2019. Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Missouri * ''Though it May Hurt, Thus Shall You Grow,'' 2022. Brooklyn Museum, New York * Written in the Sky, 2022. Art Gallery of Ontario, Canada

Awards

Pierre was awarded a

Studio Museum in Harlem The Studio Museum in Harlem is an American art museum devoted to the work of artists of African descent. The museum's galleries are currently closed in preparation for a building project that will replace the current building, located at 144 W ...

Artist Residency in 2019–2020, and their work was exhibited in ''This Longing Vessel'' at

MoMA PS1 MoMA PS1 is a contemporary art institution located in Court Square in the Long Island City neighborhood in the borough of Queens, New York City. In addition to its exhibitions, the institution organizes the Sunday Sessions performance series, th ...

, a three-person show featuring the residency cohort.

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Pierre, Naudline 1989 births Living people 21st-century American women painters 21st-century American painters American people of Haitian descent American women painters Andrews University alumni New York Academy of Art alumni