CONTEMPORARY
Abstract Realist Painter
CONTEMPORARY
b. 1972, New York
Lives and works in New Jersey
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Paier College of Art
Hamden Connecticut
Dean’s Honor List
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2025 “Impermanence” Group Show | Art Fluent, Boston MA
2025 “Spring Juried Exhibition” Group Show | Lehigh Art Alliance, Bethlehem PA
2021 “ArtPrize 2021” Group Show | ArtPrize, Grand Rapids MI
2018 “The Hunterdon Art Tour” Group Show | Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton NJ
2017 “The New Black—Volunteerism” Solo Exhibition | Alvin H. Butz Gallery at ArtsQuest, Bethlehem PA
2014 “Art of the Flower” Group Show | Philadelphia Sketch Club, Philadelphia PA
2014 “To Plaid or Not to Plaid” Group Show | The Gallery at St. John’s, Easton PA
2014 “Member’s Art Exhibition” Group Show | Artsbridge Group, Lambertville NJ
2007 “The Open Door” Solo Exhibition | Paula at Rigoletto, Weehawken NJ
1994 “Alumni Group Show” | Paier College of Art, Hamden CT
SELECTED PRESS & PUBLICATIONS
2021 Channel 8 TV, Grand Rapids MI | Grace and the Atlas Moth by Nina Cruz, Interview
2017 The Easton Irregular | Giving Back is a Work of Art, Interview, Front Cover
2017 NJ.com | Nina Cruz’s Art Exhibition on Volunteerism
2017 Hunterdon County Democrat | Volunteer Stories Through Art and Narrative
2017 NPR Radio | Exhibition Artist D Nina Cruz on LV Arts Salon, Interview
2012 The Morning Call | 15th Annual Show
2012 ArtBuzz | Annual Art Showcase Hardcover Book
AWARDS
2014 The Gallery at St. John’s, Honorable 2nd Place
2012 ArtBuzz Annual Art Showcase, 2nd Place
1994 Paier College of Art, Excellence in Tradition Award
1992 Meriden Hispanic Foundation, Scholarship Award
1990 United States Congress, Congressional Award
1990 Meriden Hispanic Foundation, Scholarship Award
1990 NAACP, Dr Martin Luther King Jr Scholarship Award
MEMBERSHIPS
Lehigh Arts Alliance | Lehigh Valley PA
ArtsWorcester | Worcester MA
COLLECTIONS
Nina Cruz is collected by national and international private collections.
Lives and works in New Jersey
EDUCATION
Bachelor of Fine Arts, Paier College of Art
Hamden Connecticut
Dean’s Honor List
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2025 “Impermanence” Group Show | Art Fluent, Boston MA
2025 “Spring Juried Exhibition” Group Show | Lehigh Art Alliance, Bethlehem PA
2021 “ArtPrize 2021” Group Show | ArtPrize, Grand Rapids MI
2018 “The Hunterdon Art Tour” Group Show | Hunterdon Art Museum, Clinton NJ
2017 “The New Black—Volunteerism” Solo Exhibition | Alvin H. Butz Gallery at ArtsQuest, Bethlehem PA
2014 “Art of the Flower” Group Show | Philadelphia Sketch Club, Philadelphia PA
2014 “To Plaid or Not to Plaid” Group Show | The Gallery at St. John’s, Easton PA
2014 “Member’s Art Exhibition” Group Show | Artsbridge Group, Lambertville NJ
2007 “The Open Door” Solo Exhibition | Paula at Rigoletto, Weehawken NJ
1994 “Alumni Group Show” | Paier College of Art, Hamden CT
SELECTED PRESS & PUBLICATIONS
2021 Channel 8 TV, Grand Rapids MI | Grace and the Atlas Moth by Nina Cruz, Interview
2017 The Easton Irregular | Giving Back is a Work of Art, Interview, Front Cover
2017 NJ.com | Nina Cruz’s Art Exhibition on Volunteerism
2017 Hunterdon County Democrat | Volunteer Stories Through Art and Narrative
2017 NPR Radio | Exhibition Artist D Nina Cruz on LV Arts Salon, Interview
2012 The Morning Call | 15th Annual Show
2012 ArtBuzz | Annual Art Showcase Hardcover Book
AWARDS
2014 The Gallery at St. John’s, Honorable 2nd Place
2012 ArtBuzz Annual Art Showcase, 2nd Place
1994 Paier College of Art, Excellence in Tradition Award
1992 Meriden Hispanic Foundation, Scholarship Award
1990 United States Congress, Congressional Award
1990 Meriden Hispanic Foundation, Scholarship Award
1990 NAACP, Dr Martin Luther King Jr Scholarship Award
MEMBERSHIPS
Lehigh Arts Alliance | Lehigh Valley PA
ArtsWorcester | Worcester MA
COLLECTIONS
Nina Cruz is collected by national and international private collections.
BIOGRAPHY
Nina Cruz is a contemporary abstract realist painter based in New Jersey, close to New York and Pennsylvania. Having grown up in and out of the U.S., diverse cultures shaped her early interest in various mediums. She began drawing in a realist style at age eight and using stain in traditional ways at age ten. After winning awards as a teenager for watercolor portraits and drawings, she embraced oil painting as a new medium.
As a young adult, Cruz used art as a powerful tool to foster community engagement, an effort that earned her the prestigious Congressional Award. As a first-generation college graduate she funded her own college education and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.
Discovering no resources that focused on stain-painting as a fine art medium, Cruz initiated her own exploration to develop necessary techniques. For a decade, she dedicated herself to experimenting and refining innovative methods, achieving successful results in realism and abstraction on diverse wood species.
Cruz’s use of locally sourced wood for substrates reflects her commitment to sustainability. Influenced by her grandfather’s woodworking, who turned small works and made wooden instruments, she developed a unique appreciation for natural woods. In 2017, she conceived, pitched, curated, and produced a solo exhibition about community that garnered local front-page coverage and led to an interview with NPR.
Cruz’s childhood fascination with imagination, combined with Japanese principles of imperfect beauty and profound wonder, shapes the themes in her work. Her stain paintings, featuring childhood-inspired themes and hand-carved textures, explore dreamlike worlds that evoke nostalgia and wonder.
Nina Cruz is a contemporary abstract realist painter based in New Jersey, close to New York and Pennsylvania. Having grown up in and out of the U.S., diverse cultures shaped her early interest in various mediums. She began drawing in a realist style at age eight and using stain in traditional ways at age ten. After winning awards as a teenager for watercolor portraits and drawings, she embraced oil painting as a new medium.
As a young adult, Cruz used art as a powerful tool to foster community engagement, an effort that earned her the prestigious Congressional Award. As a first-generation college graduate she funded her own college education and earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree.
Discovering no resources that focused on stain-painting as a fine art medium, Cruz initiated her own exploration to develop necessary techniques. For a decade, she dedicated herself to experimenting and refining innovative methods, achieving successful results in realism and abstraction on diverse wood species.
Cruz’s use of locally sourced wood for substrates reflects her commitment to sustainability. Influenced by her grandfather’s woodworking, who turned small works and made wooden instruments, she developed a unique appreciation for natural woods. In 2017, she conceived, pitched, curated, and produced a solo exhibition about community that garnered local front-page coverage and led to an interview with NPR.
Cruz’s childhood fascination with imagination, combined with Japanese principles of imperfect beauty and profound wonder, shapes the themes in her work. Her stain paintings, featuring childhood-inspired themes and hand-carved textures, explore dreamlike worlds that evoke nostalgia and wonder.
STATEMENT
I am an American artist best recognized for my abstract-realism stain paintings on wood. My paintings often feature vibrant childhood themes. I occasionally hand-carve the surface which enriches the narrative. Through the numerous layers of translucent stain, the wood’s natural grain is visible.
Craftsmanship and the inventive magic of childhood have an impact on me. In a wooden setting, my paintings go into imaginary and dreamlike worlds. My work is about reconnecting people to their innate need to dream and experience profound wonder, in a world of relentless pace and depletion of the soul.
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