Mannequin Moods SALA 2015 Exhibition Opening Night
ARTICLES
- SALife – March 2014 (PDF – 4.5mb)
- TEAM WOMEN AUSTRALIA – August 2016
- At home with sacred art collector Nina Ventura – December 2019
REVIEWS
“Nina’s collection of mannequins as well as religious pictures and objects are a fascinating combination of religious culture, a rejection of ‘out with the old and in with the new’ and a fine skill in regeneration. Her collection of religious objects and pictures being used in the regeneration of mannequins draws together her Italian Catholic culture and its expression in the arts as well as her very decorative eye and skill in transforming what she has gathered into meticulously conceived works of art. In some ways it is confronting because of the juxtaposition of the sacred and the commercial aspects of life but then it is also a lot of fun. She has redefined the idea of the elegance and beauty.”
– Dr Angela McCarthy, Chairperson, Mandorla Art Award (Perth) View Website
“Nina Ventura and her life size dolls are inviting you to enter into a marvellous world where wonders happen to give life to immobile ladies, just to become a symbol of femininity and mystery. These mannequins are more than just representations of fashion items. They are witches, they are fairy creatures, they are magic incarnated in it’s upmost meaning: Life.No princesses, no business women, just feminine angels bursting into the dull reality of everyday life to brighten it up to cope with your most hidden fantasies, guessing every single desire in the sparkle of their eyes. Be ready to travel far, so far away from here to reach the universe of a very special artist.”
– His Royal Highness Sisowath Ravivaddhana Monipong (Rome) View Website
“I absolutely adore Nina’s Angelic art! The way she is able to bring her visions to life by using items from the past by refurbishing them with PURE LOVE, with such delicate care and dedication, truly takes my breath away! Each mannequin is unlike anything I have ever seen; they are so alive with LOVE & LIGHT.”
– Paul Luftenegger, International Multi Award Winning Singer/Songwriter (Canada) View Website
“Nina Ventura’s art is exquisitely realised. A work of haunting beauty, at once guileless and unsettling. Looking into these still faces, I am gripped by the uncanny feeling they speak, they understand, they live.”
– Vaddey Ratner, Author of New York Times bestseller In the Shadow of the Banyan
“The idea of reinventing mannequins is just a sublime art-action.
The Nina Ventura mannequins do not aspire to become real people, they are proud to be mannequins as mythological divinities…Often they speak just through their precious decorations and sometimes through their aura combined with their entire shape expressing, from their Olympus pedestal, something that is deeply human, a pathos of an inimitable diva of the stage…but they remain divas, legends, divinities all the same that help humans to be humans.
Nina Ventura’s work is surely unique and imbued with important meanings and sublime art.”
– Count Federico S.Q. of Wardal (San Francisco) View Facebook | View Twitter