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 in 1973, is an American artist. She is famous for her large art projects that are painted directly onto walls. She also creates paintings and performance art. Vanessa draws and cuts her own stencils. She then uses these stencils with spray paint and graffiti styles to create her art.
Her artwork has been shown in many places. These include galleries and private collections in cities like Boston, Los Angeles, and Miami. Her art has also been seen in France and Switzerland. Currently, Vanessa lives and works on an island near Savannah, GA. She also teaches painting at the Savannah College of Art and Design.
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About Vanessa Platacis
Vanessa Platacis is an American artist. She studied art at two universities. She earned her Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.) degree 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, Vanessa Platacis started adding patterns and decorations to her street art. She was inspired by a style called the Pattern and Decoration movement. Her large art projects are often site-specific. This means they are made especially for a certain place. They are designed to exist only in that space. This way, people can experience public places in new and exciting ways.
Vanessa's first museum show was in 2008. It was held at the DeCordova Museum and Sculpture Park in Lincoln, Massachusetts. Later, a special show called 4 Pleasant Street: A Retrospective looked back at 10 years of her work. She has also given talks at places like the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston. She has written articles for ARTPULSE Magazine too.
In September 2019, Vanessa Platacis opened a huge art piece. It is a permanent painting installation called Taking Place. This artwork is 2,700 square feet in size. You can see it at the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, Massachusetts.
PIXNIT: Her Secret Art Identity (2005-2010)
For a few years, Vanessa Platacis used a secret artist name: PIXNIT. This name comes from the Latin word pinxit. That word means "he/she painted this work." Artists in old Europe often used it next to their signatures. In 2007, The Boston Globe newspaper wrote a big story about her art.
As PIXNIT, her art style mixed graffiti with her special stenciling method. It was like "guerilla art." This means it was often done quickly and sometimes without official permission. Her goal was to make city areas more beautiful. She also wanted to make people think about how urban spaces were used.
Art experts really liked PIXNIT's work. Many other people admired it too. In 2008, she was voted "The Best of Boston Graffiti/Street/Performance Artist." Her fans even had a saying: "That's so PIXNIT!" They used it when something decorative was added to a surface.
Vanessa decided to end the PIXNIT project in 2010. She even wrote a fake obituary for PIXNIT. It said PIXNIT was "missing and presumed dead" after April 2, 2010, in Paris, France. In 2010, Vanessa Platacis won the New England Art Award for Performance Art.
L’ E’tat, C’test Moi (2007)
In 2007, PIXNIT created a very large painting installation. It was 12 feet tall and 30 feet wide. This artwork was shown at the SCOPE Art Fair in Basel, Switzerland. The piece was designed to make people rethink what they thought about graffiti in cities. She used hand-cut stencils and vinyl. The art made people question ideas about beauty and good taste.
4 Pleasant Street: A Retrospective (2017-2020)
This art show was a big look back at Vanessa Platacis's work. It was put together by the Cambridge Arts Council and curator Geoff Hargadon. The installation was 16 feet by 40 feet. It included many of her most famous paintings from her time as PIXNIT.
The artwork combined patterns from different cultures. It used a single color palette, mostly black and white. This show highlighted Vanessa's important contributions to street art, painting, and performance art in Boston, Massachusetts.
¡NO! (2017)
On January 21, 2017, Vanessa Platacis went to the 2017 Women's March in Washington D.C. This was the largest protest in U.S. history. Her performance art during the march was called "¡NO!". It became one of the most famous images from the event. Her work 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. It was the PEN/Toni and James C. Goodale Freedom of Expression Courage Award. For Vanessa, this performance used public space to talk about important social issues. It brought attention to topics like human rights, women's rights, and equality for all.
Taking Place (2019)
Taking Place is a huge painting installation. It covers 2,700 square feet. This artwork reimagines some of the most loved items from the Peabody Essex Museum's worldwide collections. Vanessa's art process involves a lot of research. She created 210 stencils for this project, all drawn and cut by hand.
In her art, you can see natural shapes and curved lines. These elements appear across different cultures and time periods. Her detailed, modern painting style connects to the amazing skill found in the museum's old objects. The exhibition opened in September 2019. All 210 stencils she created are now part of the museum's permanent collection.
Awards and Recognition
Vanessa Platacis has received several awards for her art:
- 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)
