Nadine Rosario-Viera - Illustrator/Graphic Artist

New York, USA

Through my art I’ve been able fuse my family’s culture that I was given, and a subculture that I entered independently. I am a first generation American of Cape Verdean, Iberian and Indo-Portuguese descent.

In my youth, feeling isolated and not knowing where I belonged culturally, I flocked to punk/anarchist subculture where there was no judgment, no being or looking “more” of one race or ethnicity. I was amongst freaks and degenerates who welcomed me and never questioned my identity. We all didn’t know who we were, but we were in it together.

Once certain of my inner knowledge and developed a sense of self, I was able to allow the one thing that isolated me to be a source of inspiration. My Grandfather Miguel, who had family in Guinea Bissau, collected ceramics and other art, and later gifted those to my mother.

I grew up in a home with images that were foreign to my friends at school, I now look back and feel extreme gratitude for that. It's a big part of my identity and it will always be. Tapping into themes of my Portuguese background, the concepts of Saudade and Fado I apply to my work. To fuse those ideals with African folk art has been a way to tell stories without a voice.