Georgie Nakima’s compositions—kaleidoscopes that unite shards of color with a tight contour line—are metaphors for her approach to life and art.
She builds her abstract spaces on a foundation of complicated geometry, revealing her obsession with math. Her blooming plant life, stoic animals, and majestic portraits remind us of the intersectionality of our shared world, one that requires balance between all life forms to thrive as vibrantly as her painted fields. “We live in a world that has thrived on biodiversity,” Nakima observes, “and it’s something that we’re taking away.”
Nakima majored in biology and minored in chemistry at Winston Salem State University. Although trained as a scientist, her vehicle to explore these fields is painting, whether through canvases or murals.
She explains, “When you look at a plant and you look at how it grows, it follows a unique pattern that scales fractals. . . I like to put those patterns into a portrait, because in this world we often separate ourselves from other existing life forms, we see ourselves as living in a society that’s far from nature. I try to bridge it back through visual art.”