Text by Isabel Block, Independent Art Curator.

Hey Girl…Let’s go into the room and play. Look at my house, my Teddy’s and bunny’s collection. Look at the fabulous linens, put them on! And let us play “make believe”. Fantasize –drink tea with your favorite stuffed friends, isn’t it wonderful to feel aloof?
Nina Surel portrays the whimsical and complicated life history of any and every western sophisticated woman.

At a closer look, we start to engage in a game of textures: backgrounds with rich 18th Century wallpaper design with neo-classical figures, old pillows or fabrics with simple stripes wrap the stretcher as the canvas. Base boards and moldings, picture frames and house paint are the decorative stage for the tale to begin. On the stretched fabric, black and white cuts out of tea kettles and funnels, embroidered bras and silk bows are either lined up or strategically placed on the surface. Always a tri-dimensional object, such as a collection of pink buttons in different shapes and forms, are glued together to give form and depth to a skirt (Dressed up, 2004). In other works a wood frame of a doll house is placed on a corner to show a sculptural aspect to a two-dimensional piece (Housekeeper, 2004).

Most of her works have a girl as a principal figure and she is always centered. The girl is always tidy, clean and presentable. Socks and shoes are constant. The aligned objects floating next to her- kettles, stuffed animals and kitchen utensils for example; are little pieces from a fragmented story of the past and games she (we) used to play as a child (princess, 2004). The mind drifts and the canvases resemble learned patterns of womanhood and protocol learned from our ancestors.

After seeing each canvas for a while, the games on the board become psychologically more complicated. Has Miss Surel placed in It’s a Girl!, 2004 three silver spoons underneath the beheaded girl as a decorative feature or do the spoons rally mean something else? My imagination tends to run wild and think about a girl that needs to be uplifted with three spoons…why? What does the repetition mean?. Picket fences on top of an encased head, does it mean we have to protect this one? Are there other three missing girls? Or have we tried this three times before? Since the title suggests a newborn baby-girl. Many questions arise when you dwell on these pieces for a while, some of it reflecting an uncomfortable feeling, yet beautifully decorated and assembled.

Twins, 2004 is a diptych. The iconography of each canvas and its elements are clearly stipulated. One canvas and its elements are clearly stipulated. One canvas showing a larger size glued square tile with the drawing of “bow tie” clearly indicating the “boy” or boyish child. Underneath this one, another three fragmented tiles of the sketch of a girl (head and shoulder on top, upper body and third calfs and feet on bottom) has been placed. Between the body and the legs of this child, the inner part of a round clock structure protrudes. Again the metaphorical message of the “biological clock” is (un)conscious addressed.

At a glance, the works are playful and fun and then they become intrinsic in the subject matter. Nina Surel has accomplished different purposes in her works. She addresses the importance of the formation of girls into adult women by placing toys and elements known by our culture to nurture and become a feminine person. Nina also stresses the importance of woman as orderly and structured individuals showing that everything has a place and form. Underneath all these pieces, each canvas is telling a different story of a woman who used to be a child. Girls are taught about raw models and social behavior from a theoretical, if not theatrical, point of view. This method of stereotypes of women is noted on each symbol Nina Surel placed in her works.

Nina Surel’s experimentation with her handcraft techniques has manifested the absurdum and irony of feminism and womanhood like Barbara Kruger, Frida Kalho and Louise Bourgeois have created in their own working style. Identity as a female, woman, girl or mothers is the subject and it is Nina Surel. She has succeeded in her effort to demonstrate the evolution of womanhood in the 21st Century. While time elapses, the legacy of this body of work will remain a trace for future generations to come.

Latin American Art Auction 2005

Miami Art Central

Museum of Latin American Art

Auction 2005

Contemporary Latin American Art

Miami Beach Convention Center