Aliza Nisenbaum

While some museums are closed due to the Covid-19 pandemic, Apollo’s usual weekly pick of exhibitions will include shows at institutions that are currently open as well as digital projects providing virtual access to art and culture.

With her large-scale, brightly coloured paintings, the New York-based artist Aliza Nisenbaum follows in the footsteps of the great muralists of her native Mexico: like Diego Rivera or José Clemente Orozco, her compositions are strongly informed by social and political history. Her first solo museum show in Europe opens at Tate Liverpool on 15 December (until 27 June 2021). It includes two group portraits of Liverpudlians who have been key workers during the Covid-19 crisis, as well as 11 individual portraits on paper, all commissioned for the exhibition. The sitters, who range from members of SAGE (the UK’s Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies) to hospital porters, are portrayed by Nisenbaum alongside personal objects they have selected for their symbolic meaning. Find out more from the Tate’s website.

Preview below | View Apollo’s Art Diary here

Naveena, Student Nurse and Succulents (2020), Aliza Nisenbaum. Photo: Jeff McLane; courtesy the artist and Anton Kern Gallery, New York

Calum, Professor of Outbreak Medicine and member of SAGE (2020), Aliza Nisenbaum. Photo: Jeff McLane; courtesy the artist and Anton Kern Gallery, New York

Ryan, Respiratory Doctor in Training (2020), Aliza Nisenbaum. Photo: Jeff McLane; courtesy the artist and Anton Kern Gallery, New York

London Underground: Brixton Station and Victoria Line Staff (2018–19), Aliza Nisenbaum. Courtesy the artist and Art on the Underground, London; Mary Mary, Glasgow; Anton Kern Gallery, New York / © Aliza Nisebaum