By NeSpoon
NeSpoon combines urban art with elements of artivism. In her work, she addresses social and environmental issues such as deforestation, industrial animal farming, the impending global water crisis, the flood of advertising, disinformation and post-truth, and the traumas of war. Rather than focusing on confrontation, however, she searches for what connects rather than what divides. Her long-term urban art project “Harmony” is inspired by traditional lace-making. Using a restrained palette often dominated by white, NeSpoon creates murals, stencil graffiti, ceramic objects, and site-specific installations that translate delicate lace patterns into contemporary urban contexts. This work is a search for the simplest codes of beauty and harmony. Symmetrical lace patterns have a mesmerizing character and echo structures found throughout nature: flower calyxes, skeletons of sea creatures, snowflakes, or patterns painted by frost on windows. Thus, her murals appear universal and instinctively recognizable across cultures. For many people lace also carries emotional associations with family homes, childhood memories, and safety, as well as a sense of continuity with the past.
NeSpoon believes that works based on lace motifs carry positive energy – people simply like them and often smile when they encounter them in the urban landscape. Research into the five-hundred-year history of lace-making is an essential part of her artistic process. While traveling, NeSpoon studies historical sources, visits museums, and meets contemporary lace-makers. By transferring traditional lace patterns into murals and installations in cities around the world, she builds a bridge between centuries-old craftsmanship and contemporary artistic expression. The feminine dimension of lace-making remains an important aspect of her work. For centuries the craft was practiced almost exclusively by women, often within social networks that provided both economic and emotional support. This collective and intergenerational character continues to resonate in NeSpoon’s practice. By bringing lace patterns into the public space, NeSpoon transforms a form historically associated with private interiors and luxury into a universal visual language accessible to everyone. Her works function simultaneously as ornament, cultural research, and a quiet gesture of harmony introduced into the shared space of the city.
NeSpoon is a visual artist working at the intersection of urban art, ceramics, painting, and site-specific installation. She states that she was born in 2009 – the year she placed her first work in public space. Since then, her works have appeared in more than 100 cities in over 40 countries on five continents, both in public space and in galleries and museum collections. She has held numerous solo and group exhibitions, and her works can be seen both on the streets and in private and institutional collections, including the Louvre Museum in Lens, the Lace Museum in Calais, and the Museum of Fine Arts and Lace in Alençon. Her works have also been presented in the Polish Pavilion at Expo 2020 in Dubai, at the European Parliament in Brussels, European Capital of Culture 2016 Wrocław, (Poland), or the UK City of Culture Bradford 2025. More about her work here.
All images by permission of the artist @ NeSpoon.
