Aliza Nisenbaum was born in Mexico City in 1977. She is the daughter of a Norwegian-American mother and a Russian-Mexican father. Her artwork is a beautiful mix of intimate portraiture and detailed still life. Working in the heart of Brooklyn her art prominently features the marginalized and invisible people she encounters. Her colorful and cheerful portraits of individuals society would rather not see invite viewers in to really see the humanity of her subjects.
Aliza studied psychology in Mexico City, where she planned to go into b social work. Then later applied to art school in Chicago. At first her passion was for abstract art, but her compassion for humanity Drew her to choose portraiture. After resettling in New York and working alongside fellow artist and friend Josephine Halvorson, who does ultra realistic paintings of everyday items, Aliza began to do beautiful life-size paintings of cut flowers purchased from vendors in her neighborhood. Her intent is to use these seemingly innocuous images to make commentary on American-Mexican trade.
Branching out from immigrants from her native Mexico, her Minneapolis exhibition in 2017 featured marginalized people from all over the world. Most of the people featured in her work are closely involved and active in multinational community groups. She is very passionate about the importance of these community centers for a sense of belonging to the communities they have joined.
As a member of a community center herself, Aliza contributed to her community by hosting language learning workshops. Through her passions art and social work she opened the door for her students to open up about their lives and experiences. Some of those experiences were beautiful, and some were ugly.
Through conversation with her language students she found several students were victims of domestic violence. (Vogue) Her kindness and compassion allowed not only these students to be heard, but opened the door for a new workshop about domestic violence to be created to help even more members of the community.
