Nina Dotti

Nina Dotti (Andreina Fuentes) (born April 5, 1968) is a Venezuelan-born multimedia contemporary artist based in Miami. She has been described as a feminist artist due to her involvement in the LGBT community of Venezuela. Her art is characterized by the use of non-traditional materials and domestic items.
Early life
Born in the city of Caracas, Venezuela, Nina is the second daughter of Andres Fuentes Martinez and Mercedes Angarita Macias. When she was only 30 days old, her family moved to Palo Alto, California where her father studied at Stanford University. Nina’s family returned to Venezuela in 1975, in Caracas, to her maternal grandmother’s house. Her grandmother, Marina Macía, was a Colombian woman who moved to Caracas in 1948 to work as a seamstress. In the following years, and due to the various family trips to cultural cities in the world, Nina became acquainted with the arts and humanities. Nina graduated from high school and enrolled to study bank and finances at the Universidad Metropolitana, attended French courses, and worked at UBS in New York as well.
From Business to Activism through Plastic Arts
Parallel to her working life, Nina studied photography between the years 1996 through 1999 at Roberto Mata Photography School and "Organización Nelson Garrido" in Venezuela, as well as sculpture and drawing at the Art Student League in New York City and Art History and Museum Studies at the Universidad Jose Maria Vargas in Caracas from 1997 to 2003. By the year 2001, Nina was presented with health issues that took her to the south of Florida on numerous occasions from her native Caracas. With medical treatments every three weeks, Nina spent most of her days visiting galleries and museums, until she came across Miami’s Art Basel. The Wynwood Art district was at its early days, so Nina kept coming back and forth until she finally settled in Miami when her daughter Nicole also required medical treatment that was not found in Venezuela. Since the beginning of her career, Nina has been attracted to social and political issues such as the influence of religion, the role of women, prostitution, violence and discrimination, especially in minorities like LGBT and women in general. The opportunity to express her dissent came in May 2004, when she took part in an art exposition called "Álbum de Boda" (Wedding Album) in CELARG located in Caracas Together with other artists, Nina broke away from mainstream settings, installations, conceptual photo montages and performances in an exhibit where she set a wedding cake with the traditional toppers represented by a Barbie and Ken dolls and other dolls trying to get to the top of a wedding cake suggesting the preference in homosexual marriage.
Nina Dotti: An Artistic Identity
From 2005, Nina adopted an artistic alias, “Nina Dotti”, and with this, she signed her new work "Plataforma: Forma de hacer plata" (Money-making Platform) (2005) produced for the "Transito" Foundation (2005) and inspired by the platform shoes used by transsexuals. In that same year, Nina took to Chicago, where she performed on streets of the city wearing a wedding dress, in which symbolic blessings were given to both homosexual and heterosexual couples as a way to express equality. "Pastel de Boda" (Wedding Cake) would also be presented in Miami’s Hardcore Art Contemporary Spaces (HACS), in a performance in which Dotti would “marry” her crowd. This was followed by "Hot Flashes Bar", presented during the Arte Americas Art Fair in 2006. Other installations such as the The Wedding Cake were presented in the gardens of the International Community Church at Lincoln Road in South Beach, Miami during the city’s Art Basel 2006. This piece consisted on an immense wedding cake topped with real couples. The cake had three huge tiers that people climbed up to, "Groom" and "Bride" accessories and wedding rings were available to wear and exchange. Couples from all sexual orientations and also entire families climbed up the challenging wooden stairs situated behind the decorated cake. The piece was accompanied by a music piece created in collaboration with artists Franchesca Saiden and Iris Cegarra with more than 480 wedding songs of all religions and different countries . In March 2007, San Juan, Puerto Rico, saw her performances at the "Circa ‘07" art exhibit in which she received favorable critiques with "Blue Pillar Bar", calling it a Celebration of Menopause and Andropause. This was followed by "Dotti’s 99 cent Clichés" presented in Miami’s Hard Core Art Spaces (HACS), with a kitsch ensemble of the now famous Dollar stores.
Princess, Mother, Superwoman (P.M.S.)
Nina also has an inclination for drawing and painting. Her pieces are based on the Supergirl comics and transformed into her own interpretation of what a superwoman should be: "free, capable of living with her complexity in a non-conflict way". Also in 2006, and as the result of her simultaneous endeavors as art merchant and known gallery owner, Nina is invited to exhibit in Paris where she exhibits two of her best known installations: "Wedding Cake" and "P.M.S." in "Gallerie 13 Jeanette Mariani". Diverse materials are used freely on her installations. By 2008, Nina took part on an exhibition called "Cartografías Meridionales" (Southern Cartography) presented at the Museum of Contemporary Art of Rosario, in the city of Rosario, Argentina, in which her P.M.S. performance was shown again.
“I always feel like smiling, all my dreams come true, my path is paved in gold, I love the real me”
By 2012, Nina had been experienced in all major forms of Plastic Arts. Dot 51 Gallery in Miami was the setting in which The Tipping Point would be showcased, presenting different proposals ranging from video installations to sculptures and photography, all encased in a solid gold concept.
“Doña Delincuente”
In one of Nina’s many trips to Colombia, she had the opportunity to speak with her grandmother about her origins, only to discover that her great-grandfather owned brothels, and that some lands on her family’s name are yet to be claimed as well as learning of her Jewish Sephardi origins. This generates an exposition in the city of Bucaramanga (2014) titled "Doña Delincuente - 13 historias" (Madame Delinquency - 13 Stories), and later her works are represented by Artemisia gallery. This new “character” created by Nina is inspired in the Latin American modern Syncretism in which criminals are revered as saints, with statues for veneration and prayer, as well as a prayer dedicated to Doña Delincuencia. This called the attention of the citizens of the city, with enough interest to lead to the production of a brand of drink, as well as a local tobacco brand.
Miss Wynwood
Nina is involved in new artistic projects. One of them is based on the story of a Venezuelan Miss Universe-turned-into-politician called Irene Sáez, who after chairing the position of Mayor of Chacao (Caracas’ highest-end municipality), was lured by one of the old establishment parties to oppose Hugo Chavez to be later dumped by her own party shortly before Election Day. Nina takes this concept to the next level and turns herself into a beauty queen now elected (in a mock event) as the Mayor of Wynwood and walking the streets in an installation called "Miss Wynwood" recently presented at Miami’s Art Basel 2014 edition.

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