Nikki Luna is one of my favorite artists. I have a piece of hers displaying at home and I do often support the different projects she’s constantly cooking up. What makes Nikki a constant force in the art world are not just her pieces but also the messages she delivers. She’s a vocal feminist advocate, stopping at nothing to shed light on women’s issues. She often participates in various talks and conversations addressing equality, women’s rights, and how to dismantle today’s misogyny. Her artworks are very much in the same thread and she’s not afraid to go for a shocking statement despite a minimalist aesthetic. Take for example her work for her CCP Thirteen Artists Awards exhibit. She made her art from bones: a hand-painted actual female pelvis and vertebrae made into a pineapple. This alludes also to the Kentex fire tragedy and the labor issues women face.
That’s what I like Nikki so much. Her pieces are in constant conversation or reaction to current affairs. Her current piece is an illustration of a womb created through M4 bullets fired exactly to follow her drawing. “I got state security forces. This work comes from the statement our commander-in-chief uttered weeks ago when he said, ‘Shoot the vagina.‘” This highlights how even in these times, violence against women (VAW) is prevalent and even advocated carelessly by those in power.
Nikki also told me that her drawing, though both simple visually and complicated in execution, was to make a powerful statement. “I wanted to make a very minimal interpretation of that area of a woman. There’s a lot to be said about the womb area, it is where women are usually ‘defined’ because this is usually where they fulfill their roles as mothers, homemakers, caregivers.”
There are a lot of layers to uncover when it comes to feminism. And I know a lot of you out there feel hesitant to use the word or to even identify as one. That’s why I stopped by Nikki’s studio to talk about it, woman-to-woman, without judgement. I hope you appreciate this as much as I do and truly learn from it. More importantly, I hope it affirms your beliefs when it comes to women’s rights.
