The Black Woman in Painting and the Symbolism of Dreams

Text by Júlia Anadam, for the documentary on the Musa Arte channel, by the production company Opoente Filmes. October 2024.

Through the brushes and acrylic paints of Nina Satie, 29, canvases emerge with hybrid creatures that do not divide between human and animal but multiply between the corporeal and the fantastic, with hands and also hooves, feet and also wings. Beings of fauna and flora, which can be goats, moths, flowers, and bulls, embrace and blend with silhouettes that evoke the fluid feminine and seem to transcend the physical world. In this elemental dynamic, between grounding and spirit, Nina crafts an emancipation of the Black female body through her spiritual expression. Her large-scale canvases absorb the viewer, while the smaller ones open intimate portals to other realities.

The purple tone, known to symbolize the spiritual world, blends with reddish-brown, orange, pink, black, and white—this last one appearing in veils, beaded necklaces, and fluttering details. The titles of the works give clues about the universe from which they originate: “Petal Kiss,” “If I Emerged from the Deep and Salty Black Earth,” and “In Blood and Purity” are examples of themes that guide us through their subtle dimensions.

Nina was born in São Paulo and studied two years of Visual Arts at UERJ, but when faced with the conventional narratives of art education, she decided to suspend her enrollment and seek deeper exchanges in her hometown. Today, she shares a studio with another artist in the Northern Zone, with whom she also has a music project, PITCHPEARLS. In her room, books like The Book of Symbols and Art Nouveau share space with a flower vase, a tarot deck, a paint cart, and headphones, highlighting the intersection between the mystical and the real in her research.

At university, the artists that made up the traditional arts curriculum did not capture Nina’s attention. It was an earlier encounter with the ritualistic and symbolic universe of Cuban artist Belkis Ayón that made her fall in love and recognize herself in the craft. With Belkis, Nina saw that it was possible to paint mysteries. She also realized that her research could reverberate through her experiences, intertwining issues of identity, such as race, class, and gender, while also delineating her individual process, if she wished. Finally, she understood that her creations could transcend time and touch the lives of others, just as Belkis did with hers. 

Psychology, especially the process of individuation and identity building, as well as Egyptian and Afro-diasporic mythologies and the very cycle of nature, also serve as inspirations for Nina: through them, she draws parallels with her own inner journey and outlines a symbolic search for self-discovery and integration. The ambivalent figures in her works recreate a Black feminine imagination that evokes ancestry and transcendence, while also offering a critical perspective on the representation of these bodies in the world.