Aliza Nisenbaum's majestic portraits of communities

HYPERALLERGIC
By Sheila Regan

Aliza Nisenbaum, “Nimo, Sumiya, and Bisharo harvesting flowers and vegetables at Hope Community Garden” (2017) (all photos by the author for Hyperallergic)

MINNEAPOLIS — The subjects in Aliza Nisenbaum’s group portraits, now on view in A Place We Share at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), look almost regal in their presentation. The groups are carefully composed, as if they were posing for a formal photography shoot, though in reality Nisenbaum had each person sit with her individually. While these people don’t wield a huge amount of social or political power, Nisenbaum portrays them with majesty and importance, and in so doing upends class and status structures. Nisenbaum, a Harlem-based artist who was born in Mexico City and raised by Russian-Jewish and Scandinavian-American parents. Aliza Nisenbaum: A Place We Share continues at the Minneapolis Institute of Art (2400 3rd Ave S., Minneapolis) through February 4. [More]