Nail Art Power

Nail Art Power
By Niela Orr
The Baffler

"The ways in which the women use their nail art to escape personal turmoil, to facilitate emotional support for other women (co-workers and clients), and to earn a living, brings to my mind other women artists. Specifically, they remind me of contributors to 'Making Space: Women Artists and Postwar Abstraction,' an ongoing exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art. The women featured in this show were making art in an era when social change allowed for more women to work as professional artists, yet many still felt constrained by the discriminatory practices of men in power...Under such conditions, these women turned to abstract art; according to the exhibition text, 'Abstraction dominated artistic practice during these years, as many artists working in the aftermath of World War II sought an international language that might transcend national and regional narratives—and for women artists, additionally, those relating to gender.'"