Nina Simone Fire on Wood by Baba Saleh (UK)
A world-renowned musical and civil rights icon, Nina Simone, also known as the “High Priestess of Soul,” would have been 80 years old today.
And while last year was filled with the controversy of Cynthia Mort‘s unauthorized biopic on her life, set to debut in 2013, we thought it’d be nice to seek creatives who got her legacy and likeness just right.
This special Birthday Creative Feature includes illustrations, paintings, murals, t-shirt designs, and more from all over the world, some of which are available for purchase. Enjoy below.
Nina Simone by Kat (United States)
“Aretha may be the queen of soul, but even she must bow to the immortal Nina Simone.”
Nina Simone Drawing by David Weinholtz (Brooklyn, NY)
Nina Simone T-shirt by Kelly Dion (Nashville, TN), $20.00
Nina Simone Digital Portrait by Walter Neal (Baltimore, Maryland)
Nina Simone Ilustration by Stanley Chow (Manchester, England)
Nina Simone Acrylic Painting by Antonio Montanaro (Italy), $1,700.00
Nina Simone Spray Paint and Acrylic by Martin Monet/Barbouilli (Stockholm, Sweden)
Nina Simone T-shirt by Nandi Tahir (Philadelphia, PA), 19.95
Nina Simone by Karina Dale (Portland, Oregon)
Nina Simone by Fran Niño (Spain)
Nina Simone hand-painted skateboard decks by Mykim Dang (Boston, MA), $45.00
Soul Quartet Painted Wood Panel by Victoria Hamm (Buffalo, NY), 1,000.00
Nina Simone Oil Painting by Joan Oji (France)
Nina Simone by Tobias Hall (London, UK)
Nina Simone Painting by Cyrielle PACHOT (Montpellier, France)
Nina Simone Spray Paint on Vinyl by Ace Troy (Portland, Oregon)
Nina Simone Illustration by Tono G. Dueñas (Barcelona, Spain)
Rising Sun Blues by Ronald Wimberly (Brooklyn, NY)
This piece was made for an exhibition held at the Floating World Gallery in Portland curated by Sloane Leong. Based loosely around yakuza/crime noir films by directors such as Akira Kurosawa, Takeshi “Beat” Kitano, Takeshi Miike, Kinji Fukasaku, Seijun Suzuki, Yukio Mishima, Sogo Ishii and Shiny Tsukamoto, the show featured several artists take on the Yakuza genre.
My piece is a GratNin take on the Yakuza theme. It’s a movie poster for a film that never existed. An episode of Zatoichi subtitled Rising Sun Blues. It stars Nina Simone as a fated gambler drawn back to the infamous Rising Sun Gambling house.
Nina Simone Illustration by Wouter Bruneel (Portland, Maine)
Nina Simone 10×10 Pop Art Painting by Hank Brooks (Austin, Texas)
