Aliza Nisenbaum

Aliza Nisenbaum’s portrait series, exhibited at Tate Liverpool between December 2020 and September 2021, is a luminous and deeply human tribute to frontline National Health Service (NHS) workers in Merseyside. Known for her colorful, large-scale paintings of community groups, the New York-based artist turned her practice toward healthcare workers during the pandemic. The exhibition features two group portraits and eleven individual ones, each filled with visual cues that communicate both the subject’s professional role and their inner world. Team Time Storytelling, Alder Hey Children’s Hospital Emergency Department, for example, is an ensemble of health workers across ranks and departments—nurses, doctors, porters, consultants, caregivers—assembled in a unified yet individually detailed group. Nisenbaum’s layering of symbolic objects (laptops, drawings, pet, soap bubbles) adds to the subject’s individuality and psychological richness of the work. The work honors both the collective labor of the NHS and the singular humanity of each person portrayed.

All of these portraits are made from long virtual conversations with the selected NHS staff, conducted over video calls from her studio in New York, in order to acquaint with them personally. They are visual archives of altruism under pressure, particularly through portraits like that of Jessica, a student nurse from a family of caregivers who returned to the frontline, or Ryan, a respiratory doctor who became a new father during the first wave. By doing so, the series situates these individuals in both public and private spheres, portraying them not only as healthcare providers but also as people navigating personal joys and uncertainties during the COVID-19 pandemic. She combines close observational detail with luminous, vibrant color palettes that animate each canvas, giving her sitters a vivid, almost palpable presence. The sense of life created by the saturated colors creates a sense of life and dynamism that contrasts with the pandemic’s grim. Rather than idealizing her subjects, Nisenbaum paints with care and specificity, with oil painting and watercolor techniques that soften and smooth the surface while preserving the intricacies of facial expression, posture, and gesture.