Vanessa Platacis facts for kids
Quick facts for kids
Vanessa Platacis
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| Born | 1973 |
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Notable work
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PIXNIT, L’ E’tat, C’test Moi, 4 Pleasant Street: A Retrospective, ¡NO!, Taking Place |
Vanessa Platacis (born 1973) is an American artist famous for her large paintings and art installations. She creates her art by hand-drawing and cutting stencils. Then, she uses these stencils to paint directly onto walls with different types of spray paint and graffiti techniques. Her artwork has been shown in galleries and private collections in many cities like Boston, Los Angeles, and Miami, as well as in France and Switzerland. Today, she lives and works on an island near Savannah, GA and teaches painting at the Savannah College of Art and Design.
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About Vanessa Platacis
Vanessa Platacis is an American artist. She earned her Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) degree in studio art from the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts in Boston, Massachusetts. Before that, she received her Bachelor of Fine Arts (B.F.A.) degree in painting from New Mexico State University in Las Cruces, New Mexico.
Her Art and Career
From 2005 to 2010, Platacis started adding patterns and decorations to her street art. Her work was greatly inspired by the Pattern and Decoration art movement. Her art installations are often site-specific. This means they are made to fit and exist only in the exact place where they are shown. This way, people can experience and interact with public spaces in new and exciting ways.
Platacis had her first museum exhibition in 2008 at the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, Massachusetts. Later, a show called 4 Pleasant Street: A Retrospective looked back at 10 years of her artwork in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She has also given talks at places like the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston and many universities. She even wrote articles for ARTPULSE Magazine.
In September 2019, her huge painting installation called Taking Place opened at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts. This artwork covers an area of 2,700 square feet!
PIXNIT: Her Secret Identity
For a few years, from 2005 to 2010, Vanessa Platacis worked under the pseudonym (a made-up name) PIXNIT. This name comes from the Latin word pinxit, which means "he/she painted this work." Artists often used this word next to their signatures on old European paintings. In 2007, The Boston Globe newspaper wrote a special story about her art.
Her painting style mixed graffiti with a unique stenciling method. It was a type of "guerilla art," meaning it was done in public spaces to make them more beautiful. It also aimed to make people think about how urban areas are used. Art critics and many other people loved PIXNIT’s work. In 2008, she was voted The Best of Boston Graffiti/Street/Performance Artist. Her fans even had a saying, “That’s so PIXNIT,” when something was decorated in a cool way.
Platacis decided to end this part of her career by creating a fake obituary for PIXNIT. It said that PIXNIT was "missing and presumed dead in the spring of 2010." Vanessa Platacis won the New England Art Award for Performance Art in 2010.
L’ E’tat, C’test Moi: Art in Switzerland
In 2007, PIXNIT created a very large painting installation (12 feet by 30 feet) for the SCOPE Art Fair in Basel, Switzerland. This artwork was designed to make people rethink what they thought about graffiti in cities. By using hand-cut stencils and vinyl, the installation questioned common ideas about beauty and good taste in art.
4 Pleasant Street: A Look Back
The show 4 Pleasant Street: A Retrospective ran from 2017 to 2020. It was put together by the Cambridge Arts Council and curator Geoff Hargadon. This was the first big show looking back at all of Platacis's work. The installation was 16 feet by 40 feet and included many of her most famous paintings from her time as PIXNIT. This artwork brought together patterns from different cultures and used a single color palette. It showed how much Platacis has contributed to street art, painting, and performance art in Boston, Massachusetts.
¡NO!: Art for Change
On January 21, 2017, Platacis took part in the 2017 Women's March in Washington D.C. This was one of the largest protests in U.S. history. Her performance art during the event, called "¡NO!", was a type of protest art. It became one of the most famous images from the march and was shown in many books and magazines, including The New York Times and Rolling Stone. The people who marched that day later won a special award called the PEN/Toni and James C. Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage Award. For Platacis, this performance used public space to talk about important social issues. It brought attention to human rights, including women's rights, immigration, healthcare, and equality for all people.
Taking Place: A Museum Masterpiece
Taking Place is a huge painting installation, covering 2,700 square feet. It re-imagines some of the most loved objects from the Peabody Essex Museum's worldwide collections. Platacis spent a lot of time researching for this artwork. She created 210 stencils, all drawn and cut by hand. In her art, you can see natural shapes and curved lines that appear across different times and cultures. Her detailed way of painting connects to the amazing skill found in the museum's old objects. The exhibition opened in September 2019, and all 210 stencils have become a permanent part of the museum's collection.
Awards and Recognition
- The PEN/Toni and James C. Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage Award (United States, 2017)
- New England Art Award, Performance Artist (United States, 2010)
- The Phoenix: Best of Boston Award, Graffiti/Street/Performance Artist (United States, 2008)
