| Since the age of four, Nino Korinteli has been following a calling. From a childhood pastel portrait of her dog to her latest exhibit at the Broadway Gallery NYC, she has been constantly creating and expressing herself artistically. |  |
Logan Riley
Since the age of four, Nino Korinteli has been following a calling. From a childhood pastel portrait of her dog to her latest exhibit at the Broadway Gallery NYC, she has been constantly creating and expressing herself artistically. Korinteli’s life-long journey of personal and artistic growth has allowed for the emergence of a remarkable body of work.
Her new show, On the Road, shows the artist taking a new turn in her work, reflecting a new page in her life and new ideas that demand expression. Following the process of drawing and painting over photographs, Korintelli shows the viewer how she views what they see in their everyday life. “And then I saw what in fact I had been seeing every time I traveled,” Korintelli says, “and realized that these absurd, irrational sites undervalued by passengers inside the train, have a very strong identity, and sense of belonging here.”
Making her way in New York, the Georgia-born artist presents her latest work, which documents one of the most famous cities in the world. What separates these from most NYC pictures? They do not pay tribute. Korinteli portrays New York through the eyes of an outsider, refusing to gawk and get lost in Western geographical myths. The pictures are cold and realistic, yet simultaneously alluring and dreamlike. They beckon with a sense of danger and mystery—daring you to discover the true city that lies beneath our everyday perspectives.
After having a discussion about her new home at the On the Road opening, I was able to see the correlation between her emotions toward the city and the landscapes on the walls. Her first impression of her new home was the stark, dirty façade: an unfriendly and unyielding vision. But over time she saw beyond the grime to the restlessness and the anxiety that run through the veins of New York, charging it with an energy that most cities lack.
Her photo-paintings surrounded us on the gallery walls, with rooftops and other iconic New York impressions inspiring the same feeling as the city itself. The body of work appears stark and gray at first glance, then a sudden glimpse of color slips into the viewer’s subconsciousness. A visual representation of what she calls the noise that “would wake you up even if you were dead and you would hurry to flow into this huge organism, to live for life’s sake and enjoy it.” It may not feel like her new home, she says, but she can’t deny the freedom, the lightness, that the city breathes in spirit above the dirt.
Creating what she calls a mix between the artist’s vision and pure documentary, with On the Road Nino Korinteli strips New York bare for all to see with moving photographs that entrap and inspire. Are you ready to find the real New York?
