BIO

Niz Is A Contemporary Peruvian Ukrainian Muralist, Street Artist, And Visual Storyteller Known For Her Emotionally Charged, Spiritually Grounded Public Art.

Niz was born out of a story of struggle, resilience, courage and a deep desire to make a positive impact in the world. Early experiences like immigrating to the US,  being a social worker for at risk youth/homeless people in Santa Cruz and San Francisco, violent terrorist turmoil in Peru, parental suicide, losing family young and heavy drug addiction shaped her relentless spirit. The artist Niz was born post rehab on a Summer trip to North Adams, MA through the encouragement of a hip hop crew she lived with. Her creative spirit was further nurtured by the skateboard and hip hop communities in Ft Lauderdale, Florida. Through trial and error in warehouses all over South Florida, she taught herself multi layer stenciling and began spraying them on the streets. In 2008 she moved to Austin, Texas where she dedicated herself to cocktail waitressing in various clubs and venues to support her art endeavors. Early street work was small scale stencils and stencils painted on records and liquid nailed to walls. She painted grip tape and had her first art shows in the city with hand painted broken skateboards for No Comply Skateshop. In a strange twist of fate, she fell in with Austin’s graffiti crowd and began painting on walls and participating in graffiti art shows in Austin. In 2009 she participated in B Girl Be, an all female graffiti festival in Minneapolis, MN-a deeply inspiring experience which opened up for her the possibilities of being a female street artist as a lifestyle. In this environment she felt truly at home.

In 2010 the news of bringing a baby girl into the world with her then boyfriend, a graffiti writer from Austin came to light. She quickly grew tired of his shit and took on single Motherhood while juggling an art career and bartending at The Continental Club. These were challenging times but she persevered and eventually acquired enough success to quit her day job. In 2020 her efforts and shine were noticed by Few and Far Women(the largest all female graffiti crew in the world)and she was invited to be a member. Over the years she has painted socially impactful murals all over the US and Latin America, tackling difficult issues that get her cancelled, celebrated and everything in between. As if it’s even possible, she straddles the line of being largely recognized and unrecognized as one of Austin’s female street art pioneers and also straddles the line of being legit and un legit in the graffiti world(wow how does she do it?!)

Nonetheless, One thing has always been consistent across all the years: Niz is a force to be reckoned with spiritually and artistically and she never shys away in the face of adversity-to the contrary, she runs towards it. She perseveres whether people are clapping or not, whether people buy her work or not and continues to grow artistically and personally regardless.

An inspiration to anyone that has had all of the odds stacked against them but fire in their hearts, Niz is a testament to the spirit of strength, compassion, dedication, victory and grounded ness in an ever changing, turbulent world. While other people focus on surface issues, Niz’s depth of experience in life motivates her to dig deeper into social and spiritual undercurrents and to use those as a focal point in her art. This may come off as irrelevant but it is far from it. If you want to tap into what’s really driving things, and into remedies and everyday reminders of the grounded possibilities that are available to us, stay tuned into her work.

Her work combines heavy spiritual medicine, portal energy, women’s empowerment, botanical elements, ecological conservation, musical culture, bicultural/biracial pride and political street art grit. She has painted over 40 public murals in Austin alone and Her work has been recognized in many books(Street Art Women, Stencilists, ATX Urban Art, Concrete Wave), publications (Austin American Statesman) and documentaries(PBS) but the most important thing to her is weather her work had an impact on your heart.