Nina Belfor
Artist Statement
Whether in the form of paintings, prints or drawings/gouaches, my work always centers on the use of the human body as an expressive tool. This is a natural extension of my skills as someone who has both studied and taught figure drawing for many years, but also underlies humanistic themes in my content, which often address such ideas as power imbalances, relationships and our existence in nature. Thus the structure of the body serves as the building block of my compositions, and even my landscapes are conceptualized in terms of bodies or body parts, as in many early creation myths, with clouds, for instance, acting as a kind of Greek Chorus to the figurative narrative.
Most recently, in response to global events, I have begun a series about dictators, in both paint and print. By portraying various dictators in various states of being – including in death – I seek to understand and analyze the characterology and dynamics of people who exercised such enormous control over the life and death of so many.
For me, then, every painting, print and drawing is an essential means of emotionally and intellectually understanding the confusion and tragedy of the world via narrative re-telling, or, visually speaking, a re-composing. And if that re-telling has poetic rhythm, and compelling figures in which we can see ourselves and our own foibles, catharsis can be achieved. It’s an idea that again, goes back to classical art and poetry and centuries old stories of creation.
Portfolio
Laughing Mao
oil on board • 2024
$1100
Man of Steel
oil on canvas • 2025
$1600
Franco Diptych
oil on canvas • 2025
$2000
Dream of War
oil on canvas • 2023
$2800
Apparatchiks and Palms
oil on canvas • 2025
$2800
Franco in Uniform
o/c • 2024
$2400
Embrace (after Boucher)
o/c • 2024
$2800
Man of Steel
o/c • 2024
$2000
Execution of Ceaucescus
• 2024
$4200
Venus and Adonis
drypoint intaglio on paper • 2024
$1000
Model and Bust
screenprint on paper • 2024
$400
Museum
oil on canvas • 2024
$5000
Hard Fall
oil on canvas • 2024
$1400
Giants Bathing in the Hudson
oil on canvas • 2024
$4000
Woman and Bust
screenprint on paper • 2024
$400
Two Witches
milk carton intaglio • 2024
$800
Athlete at Rest
Oil on canvas • 2023
$3200
Six Portraits of Lopped Ashes
Oil on canvas • 2023
$3600
Woman with Felled Ash
Oil on canvas • 2023
$4000
Two Witches (After Baldung)
Oil on canvas • 2023
$3000
Plea
intaglio (drypoint) on paper • 2024
$500
Partisan
intaglio drypoint on paper • 2024
$600
Couple in Bathroom
milk carton intaglio on paper • 2024
$400
Small Imaginary Classical Still Life
Oil on canvas • 2024
$2,000
Couple at the Jersey Shore
Oil on canvas • 2023
$3500
Partisan
Oil on canvas • 2024
$2800
Politics
Intaglio with Chine Colle • 2024
$300
Saint Peter
intaglio on paper • 2024
$750
Crazy Jane and the Bishop
Oil on canvas • 2023
$4000
Franco in Fur Cape
oil on canvas • 2026
Franco in Fur Cape
screenprint on paper • 2026
Benito and Claretta
screenprint on paper • 2026
Life Drawing
gouache on paper • 2026
Old Mao
oil on canvas • 2024
$1200
WEA Interior
oil on canvas • 2024
$1200
Embrace (after Fragonard)
oil on canvas • 2025
$2400
Franco in Fur Cape
oil on canvas • 2026
$5000
Il Duce
oil on canvas • 2025
Lopped Ash
oil on canvas • 2024
Il Duce
oil on canvas • 2025
Fete d'Amour
oil on canvas • 2024
Old Pinochet
oil on canvas24 • 2025
St. Peter
oil on canvas • 2024
Young Pinochet
oil on canvas • 2025
Old Mao
oil on canvas • 2024
$2400
Blue Stalin
oil on canvas • 2026
$2400
Franco in Fur Cape
screenprint on paper • 2026
$1200
Venus and Adonis
drypoint etching • 2024
$1200
Venus and Adonis
oil on canvas • 2026
$4000
Il Duce
oil on canvas • 2025
$2400