Written by Maria Lunderskov

Born in Tunis, Tunisia in 1981, Nadia Ayari is a contemporary painter and sculptor based in Brooklyn, New York. Her multidisciplinary abstract work spans painting, fresco, and sculpture, exploring themes of imprisonment, survival, and identity. Raised between the desert island of Djerba and the capital Tunis, Ayari drew early inspiration from her bicultural household: her father, a politically engaged Tunisian farmer, shaped her worldview, while her American mother, a schoolteacher, nurtured her creative inclinations.

Ayari moved to the United States in 2000and in 2004 earned a bachelor’s degree in Art History at Boston University. She received a Certificate of Fine Arts (CFA) in Painting from Brandeis University in 2005, and a Masters in Fine Arts (MFA) in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design in 2007. In 2006, she participated in a residency at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture in Maine, where she first explored fresco painting– a technique where pigments are painted onto wet plaster so the image becomes part of the wall as it dries. Fresco painting helped her cope with the emotional toll of the 2006 Lebanese-Israeli War, as the labor-intensive and time-consuming nature of the artform kept her focused and productive. In 2009, she completed a residency at the Fine Arts Work Center, and in 2014, she moved to Dubai for a residency at A.i.R Dubai. 

While living in the United States, Ayari encountered artists whose emotionally and politically charged works deeply influenced her approach to identity, heritage, and personal narrative. She was inspired by painters such as Canadian-American artist Philip Guston and American painter Leon Golub, whose works she studied while at the Rhode Island School of Design. Guston was known for his raw, cartoonish forms and symbolic use of fleshy pink colors, and Golub for his large-scale, politically charged figurative paintings which confronted violence and power. Inspired by the works of these two artists, Ayari started exploring the convergence of personal experiences and political themes in her art . 

During the early 2000s, Ayari reflected on aspects of religious observance, questioned the condition of women, denounced the state of imprisonment and shed light on the release of Palestinian prisoners from Israeli jails. Drawing on Guston’s “meaty” abstract compositions and pinkish palette, Ayari’s visual language at the time was shaped by fleshy tones and biomorphic figures. She particularly depicted tongues, eyes, and fingers – abstracted body parts that conveyed autonomy and tension – painted in raw flesh tones of pink, beige, brown, and often animated with attributes such as eyelashes or clothing. A key example from this period is Beirut, 2007, a painting that blends figuration with urban motifs. Cylindrical forms resembling fingers or veiled human figures stand in front of palm trees and architectural domes. Ayari painted the lower part of the cylindrical figures in pink, and the white upper part with a brown brushstroke in the middle. She also painted the palm trees with gestural interrupted brushstrokes adding dynamism to the picture, making the palm leaves seem like they were swaying. 

Following the September 11, 2001 (9/11) attacks on New York City, Ayari developed post-traumatic emotional distress and experienced a form of identity crisis. She felt the need to explore her national and cultural identity. In the foreground of her 2007 painting Beirut, she depicted a group of elongated human figures that looked very much like cylindrical columns. The wall symbolizes a shield protecting a mosque painted in the background. The mosque serves as a symbol of the Islamic religion, adding a layer of intrigue and engagement to her work.

Around 2010, Ayari transitioned towards a new visual language that evolved into what can now be recognized as her signature style. Ayari’s artistic production shifted in terms of subject matter, formal depiction, and technique. Moving away from the cultural references that shaped her earlier work, she embraced a new mode of narration. As she transitioned into abstraction, Ayari shifted her focus from culturally specific motifs to broader reflections on the human condition. The canvas’ surface and composition became a space of experimentation, where she could study, produce, and repeatedly revisit the same subjects.

Abstracted visual elements drawn from nature like figs, leaves, and jasmine flowers became the protagonists of her paintings. The vegetal visual elements replaced former subjects. For instance, the tongue became the leaf, and the eye became the flower. In doing so, she broke away from Guston’s fleshy tones and established her own color palette, which now consists of intense nuances of ochre-yellow, orange, magenta, blue, purple, and green. 

Her motifs come to life through multiple well-stretched layers of paint, each meticulously applied over the previous one. Ayari applied paint in hundreds of delicate brushstrokes layered on each other. They may appear flat and uniform from a distance, but when seen up close, they reveal a textured surface mimicking the silk thread weaving technique. This technique lent her subjects a rich physical presence, adding depth and tangibility to her work. The texture and density of the oil paint Ayari uses catches the light, creating an almost shimmering effect.An example of this effect can be seen in the oil on linen painting Orbs I, 2021, currently part of the Ramzi and Saeda Dalloul Art Foundation (DAF), in Beirut. Set against a uniform dark cobalt blue background, the artwork features diagonal chain of smooth, brown rings. Suspended from one of these rings is a stylized flower with sharply defined magenta petals, a black bulbous center, and a pale sea-green sepal.

For Ayari, the flower – an imagined creation inspired by the native flora of North Africa – addresses the theme of survival. In Orbs I, the floral motifs are symmetrical, formed with straight, clean lines and well-stretched paint that creates subtle color gradients, making the petals shine as if they had a hard surface hit by a soft light. In this way, the flowers are abstracted from the soft and organic characteristics the figure of the flower is often connected to, instead conveying a sense of stiffness and inalterability. The brown rings might suggest stems, but their glossy white highlights give them a plastic-like appearance. The pale separation lines across the rings hint at the form of joined bracelets, reinforcing the idea of ornament as both protection and constraint. Additionally, the flowers’ soft core seems to be shielded by this apparent hardness, suggesting a struggle for survival in unnatural and challenging conditions.

Ayari expanded her engagement with materiality by creating small-scale frescoes on bricks, marble blocks, and cast glass. An example is her Bricks project, 2016, which included brick sculptures alongside paintings. In these artworks, Ayari examines the fig as a central figure. The sculptures consist of bricks with a rectangular, thick layer of plaster, from which the image of the fig emerges. The fig emerges as a glossy purple sphere suspended from a horizontal bar. Through the smooth application of various shades of purple, grading from dark at the edges to nearly white at the center, the surface of the fig appears glossy and polished. Ayari’s fig is an abstraction of the fruit from its usual associations with ripeness, fullness and decay, instead symbolizing both impassability and fragility. Perfectly round and smooth, the fig floats in a homogenous black background, evoking the materiality of a delicate glass Christmas ornament. The lightness and fragility of the fig stand in stark contrast to the brick’s heavy, rough and strong nature. Bricks exemplifies how Ayari, by playing with different materiality and merging contrasting symbols, conveys the complexity of human existence. 

Nadia Ayari's artistic journey is marked by an evolving exploration of identity, cultural heritage, and the human condition. From her early figurative works that explored personal and political intersections, to her later abstractions where natural elements like figs and flowers symbolically convey fragility and resilience, Ayari’s practice has continually pushed the boundaries of form, medium, and meaning. Her distinct visual language – rooted in both her cultural heritage and broader existential concerns – expresses a nuanced exploration of materiality and symbolism. Whether through oil paintings or frescoed bricks, Ayari's work embodies the complexities of existence, offering a space where abstraction meets reality, and vulnerability meets strength.

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