League at Large x Nordstrom: Insects & Bugs

This exhibition at Nordstrom Local West Village (13 7th Ave, New York, NY 10011) features work by League artists John Nizzari, Anita Lauria, and Milo Brustein which contain bugs and/or insects — literal or metaphorical, figurative or abstracted.

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League at Large is a program that showcases the work of League students in public venues outside of the League in order to increase exposure to and appreciation of their work.

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About the Artists

John Nizzari is a native New Yorker who was born and raised in the Bronx. As an independent filmmaker, Nizzari wrote, produced and directed: the feature film, Grand Slammed, starring Paul Calderon; the documentary Jobsite which screened at the 2009 Big Sky Film Festival; and the short film, Weight, which screened at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival’s Marché du film. Nizzari’s play Whose City? Our City! had a limited run at the American Theatre of Actors in 2016. He has had staged readings of his plays: Temporary Light and Bronx House performed at Dixon Place and the Actors Studio, respectively. Nizzari’s podcast Def Dialogue: Audio Plays, about everyday New Yorkers, can currently be heard on Spotify and iTunes. He is a member of the Actors Studio Playwright and Directors Unit. Former graffiti artist of the 1980s and current oil painter, Nizzari resides in Hell’s Kitchen and attends the Art Students League.

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Anita Lauria has been drawn to creating art, including drawing, sculpture and painting since she was a young girl. Raised in the New York metropolitan area by first generation Americans, her mother and great grandfather from Venice both were painters and sculptors. Although her early higher education included majors in art and illustration at Parsons School of Design, practical considerations drove her to pursue a career in business. With undergraduate and graduate degrees in Economics, she was a professional economist for almost 15 years before leaving the workforce to raise a family and return to her artistic roots. She has been studying and showing art since 2000.

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Milo Brustein is a native Brooklyn teenager, who attends the Art Students League and The High School of Art and Design. There are lantern flys all over New York and he created this work to express how something that is normally perceived as beautiful could be a pest depending on the circumstances.

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