Ninu Nina Artist Interviews

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KATIE HECTOR

Ninu Nina

Katie Hector is an artist, curator, and writer currently based in California. Her studio practice revolves around paintings that layer dye and bleach to create portraits that symbolize human emotions such as loss, intimacy and longing.

I grew up in a New Jersey suburb and spent much time shuttling between pastoral farms and industrial warehouse spaces. As a kid I spent as much time as I could in the woods, day dreaming, and drawing. I went to school for painting at Rutgers and after graduation moved north to NYC. I moved out to LA during the pandemic and it’s looking like I’ll be here for a while.

Tell us about your greatest inspirations or influences please. 

My grandmother, she immigrated to the US with three young children in her early 20s. She was very entrepreneurial and managed to run a farm, tend to animals, sell goods, and home cooking while raising six kids. She also took in friends, family, and visitors if they needed a place to stay. 

As far as art goes, I’m inspired by a deep well of artists past and present. Brancusi, I love Man Ray. I love Katerina Grosse, Joyce Pensato, Alex Katz, Ken Price, Katherine Bernhadt, Rothko, Wendy White, Susan Frecon….

How are the current trends in technology and innovation affecting your work as a creative? 

I typically use photo-based reference images as a point of departure for my work. I like collecting found images and recontextualizing them through gesture, and scale. I’m definitely interested in the seminality of images, the quanity of images we encounter + process on a daily basis, and what that means for our psyche. Images are really tricky dangerous things. I constantly think about many of the points raised in Susan Sontag’s book “Regarding the Pain of Others” when making work.

We’d love to hear more about your creative process. How do you normally tend to work from the point you have an idea to finally having your work ready to share with the world? 

My painting process is a bit funky, I don’t actually use paint, I use dye and bleach through an airbrush to achieve all the tonal modelling, highlights, and shadows. My process forces me to paint in a reductive way which is a bit unusual and it took a while to retrain my brain to think that way.

These days if I’m not physically making work, I’m definitely always thinking about it, so in that sense it kind of feels like a continuum of making. I typically like to stretch and prime my canvases, it gets my mind ready and focused.

I like to start painting in the morning and follow up with 1-2 more sessions throughout the day. I rely on daylight to paint so that typically dictates how long or how much work I can get done in a day. 

What do you think of the art world and how it works in general?

I think the art world only attracts crazies, romantics, joy-seekers, risk-takers, and maybe a level-headed accountant or two. It’s an industry run by people, those people are always changing, so in the macro-sense, yes, the industry will always change.

Anything coming up that we should know about? 

I have a few shows in LA and one in Italy this Fall. Some more shows lining up abroad in 2023 which is exciting. I’ll be sure to share more on those soon.

What does wellbeing mean to you and anything in particular that you practice? 

I’m 30 now so I have to take a little better care of myself than I used to. I go to the gym, run, and exercise regularly to curb feelings of anxiety. I take vitamins, not sure if they work but it can’t hurt. I try to eat right and hug all my pets multiple times throughout the day. I appreciate the little things and I paint. This cocktail of activities  keeps me sane, happy, and healthy.