Statement

My current work is a documentary self-portrait as I go through my first pregnancy, childbirth, breastfeeding and postpartum. The multidisciplinary installation consisting of video, glass and breastmilk sculpture, as well as painting, is a direct cry of motherhood pride and fragility. In my practice I dissect, peel, slice, unveil and reorganize extreme experiences to help me process their impacts. Intersection between tradition and appropriation, idealization and realism as well as between the grand and the mundane have been ongoing themes that I explore.

Bio

Raisa Nosova received her MFA degree in 2021 from the New York University where she has been an adjunct painting professor. She is a recipient of the George T. Dorsch Art History Grant, Fannie Kipnes Memorial Award for oil painting, Raquel Rub Sculpture Award and Brussels Capital Film Festival Award for short film.

Nosova has completed an Artist Residency at the Berlin Art Institute in Germany and at ESKFF in Jersey City, NJ.

She has been the highlight artist for the Montclair Art Museum, a guest speaker on Create! Magazine Podcast, and at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Panel discussions include the San Joaquin County Office of Education, Monmouth Museum and the Laurelwood Arboretum.  

Raisa has shown her work in solo exhibitions at Theodore Art and 80WSE Gallery, Manhattan, La Galerie Emeric Hahn, Paris and Gallery 51, Montclair, NJ. She has been written about in Jersey City Times, Milano Pavia News, Prima Milano Ovest, Milked Mag, Street Art NYC, HobokenGirl, Hudson Reporter, and more.

Raisa's murals could be found in Berlin, Milan, New York City, Hoboken and Jersey City, NJ.

Raisa is the founder of Supernosovas classical drawing and painting program for youth that has been taught at the JCC on the Palisades, Mackay Elementary School in Tenafly, NJ and P.S. 154 in Brooklyn, NY since 2010.

www.raisanosova.com

When was the first time you felt like you were an artist?

For me an artist is a unique way in which one processes information and their surroundings. Although based on that I could say that I have been an artist since childhood, I did not consciously make the decision until the middle of freshman year in college. Perhaps the biggest obstacle for making that bold decision earlier was my immigrant mentality rooted in financial reasons and hazed by ignorance of possibilities in the contemporary art scene.

The first time I felt like a real artist was when I received validation from the professional art world. This was in 2011, right after graduating the BFA program in Fine Arts from FIT. I won a generous grant, George T. Dorsch Award, for art research that allowed me to travel on an unbeaten path through Cambodia and set off on a new path with my practice. I was also offered my first gallery solo show that year, where more than half of my works sold within a month.  

Tell us about a turning point in your artistic journey and/or career.

There have been several turning points in my career, including that first grant, a solo show in Paris, and a residency at Berlin Art Institute. However, my sharpest turning point was having to juggle grad school with adaptation to motherhood. I got pregnant in my first semester of the MFA program at NYU. The pregnancy experience first seemed to get in the way of “school” and my regular studio practice. Then the challenges of breastfeeding made it even tougher to manage. However, nurtured by weekly critiques and reflective studio visits with staff and visiting faculty, I was able to process the new bodily and psychological experience into a new direction of work -- breastmilk sculpture, glass blowing, performance film.  

What would you say is the underlying thread that connects your work?

My work deals with topics of struggle, trauma, and survival. In my practice I dissect, peel, slice, unveil, and reorganize extreme experiences to help me process their impacts. The resulting pieces, be it painting, sculpture, or performance, are threaded by intersection of tradition and appropriation, idealization and realism, and between the grand and the mundane.  

What is the most satisfying part of your practice?

Being able to create, reflect, experiment, and stretch out my wonders with very few limits.  

If you could show your work anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

During the Covid pandemic I got to gravitate my work out to the street, where it perhaps serves a more correct audience. My larger goal is to get my work out to the frontlines of aggression, be it street art in political conflict areas, geopolitical borders where refugees are risking their lives, neighborhoods where women are oppressed and where children are stuck in socioeconomic poverty cycle.