SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
Peabody Essex Museum
Taking Place
2019- Ongoing
Wall painting installation
Spray paint on wall
2,700 sq. ft.
Taking Place is a 2,700 sq. ft. wall painting installation by Savannah-based artist, Vanessa Platacis, that reimagines some of PEM’s most beloved objects. The artist researched the museum’s vast and varied holdings, diving deep to find unexpected connections across time, cultures, and materials.
Platacis turned her findings into 210 canvas stencils—all drawn and cut by hand with X-Acto blades. After applying the stencils to the walls, she and her assistant used a variety of spray-paint and graffiti techniques, including drop shadows, high contrast, and layering, to apply color to the walls and give dimensionality and life to her forms. Organic forms and curvilinear lines emerged as unifying design motifs that speak to the natural world.
As you move deeper into these galleries, floral forms give way to enchanting fauna and larger-than-life presentations of familiar and unexpected objects. Platacis’ labor-intensive contemporary approach to painting connects to the artistry and skill embedded within the historical objects in PEM’s collection, creating a fascinating interplay between artistic practice then and now. Curated by Lydia Peabody.
Gutstein Gallery
Alter Ego: PIXNIT Revisited
1.20.2018 - 3.22.2018
Wall painting installation
Spray paint and framed stencils on wall
12’ x 50’
Gutstein Gallery presents Alter Ego, a group exhibition offering diverse approaches to the broad theme of the artist’s alter ego. The exhibition, featuring various artistic practices, follows a rich history of persona, but offer fresh approaches that critique or celebrate notions of celebrity, commodity culture, reality and fiction.
Artist Vanessa Platacis created a commissioned painting installation exclusively for the exhibition. The artist creates large scale painting installations that incorporate decorative elements referencing the traditions of painting and architectural ornament. Platacis formerly went by the alias PIXNIT and subsequently killed the persona through a public obituary and social media.
Alter Ego is curated by Ben Tollefson, assistant curator of SCAD exhibitions and Amanda York.
This exhibition is part of deFINE ART 2018, held Feb. 20–23 at SCAD locations in Savannah and Atlanta, Georgia. DeFINE ART is an annual program of exhibitions, lectures, performances and public events that highlights emerging and established artists and visionaries.
DeCordova Museum
Folie que la Nouveaute, detail
2009 - 2011
Wall painting installation
Spray paint and vinyl on wall
1,300 sq. ft.
Folie que la Nouveaute was a two room painting installation at the DeCordova Museum that addressed the perennial interweaving of fashion and politics, the contemporary and the historical and the real and the faux. Part of the body of work titled PIXNIT.
In 2010, Vanessa Platacis ended the body of work titled “PIXNIT” by releasing the following obituary to the media:
PIXNIT, 35; Notorious Boston ArtistThe controversial Boston based artist as famous for her anonymity as for her street art, is missing and presumed dead. Her breakthrough came in 2007 when the Boston Globe ran a profile about her provocative artwork. Her painting style, combining graffiti with a distinctive stenciling technique, was guerrilla art designed to simultaneously beautify and to critique the uses and misuses of the urban environment.
PIXNIT was last seen April 2nd when filmed by a CCTV camera near Pont Alexandre in Paris, France. It is believed that she was on her way to meet other Parkour enthusiasts for a practice session.
“Parkour is the physical discipline of training to overcome any obstacle within one's path by adapting one's movements to the urban environment. Practitioners like PIXNIT run along a route, attempting to negotiate obstacles through jumping, climbing and gymnastics,” said Vanessa Platacis, Project Manager for PIXNIT Productions.
Police believe PIXNIT was engaged in such activity near the Seine River and maintain she is missing and “presumed dead by misadventure”. Although friends launched an extensive poster campaign and police searched with dogs, divers and from the air, her fate remains unknown.
Despite her prolific street art, PIXNIT was far from an art-world outsider. Her most notable work is currently on view at the DeCordova Museum in Lincoln, MA. The two room painting installation titled “Folie que la Nouveaute” addresses the perennial interweavings of fashion and politics, the contemporary and the historical, and the real and the faux. PIXNIT’s work has also been exhibited in venues such as the Judi Rotenberg Gallery in Boston, Gallery Revisited in Los Angeles, and the Scope Art Fair in Basel, Switzerland.
“For years we have followed her work on the street, and were lucky to work with her on an installation in our home in 2009. PIXNIT was a warm and positive person, a pleasure to work with and was very kind to our cat, Daisy, during the installation,” said art collectors, Geoff Hargadon and Patricia LaValley. “In our view, PIXNIT ranks high in our book among street artists of her generation.”
Although art critics championed PIXNIT’s work, it was also greatly admired by more wide-ranging viewers. In 2008 she was voted The Best of Boston Graffiti/Street/ Performance Artist. Her fans used the catch phrase “That’s so PIXNIT” in reference to a decorative element added to any surface, such as a cardigan sweater with a floral appliqué.
"As we get farther from her work, we're going to recognize that she’s a different voice in contemporary art," said Chris Constas, Fine Art Enterprises. "This quarreling over graffiti is going to fade, and she will be recognized as a great American artist."