Whether painting in her Brooklyn studio or roaming amidst the medieval artworks at The Met Cloisters, artist Naudline Pierre reframes traditional representations of religion and spirituality, finding freedom in a world of her own making—where the airborne and earthbound coexist and cooperate. Growing up in a family with strong religious beliefs, Pierre’s connection to fantastical realms and celestial beings was developed at a young age. In the studio, the artist connects with the characters who populate her spiritual world, telling their stories as both a creative and emotional outlet. “Thinking about flying and burning, and destroying and creating, and loving and hating and raging—I can just do all of that in the studio, and I can do that through the stories that these characters are allowing me to tell,” says the artist. In her painting, I, A Terror Loosed Upon Your Heels (2022), Pierre depicts her central figure soaring across the sky atop a chariot pulled by winged beings, marking a turning point in the artist’s practice, where her central “protagonist” comes into her own power.

At the Met Cloisters, the artist finds inspiration in medieval artworks and their unique vision of the world. “I think what attracts me to that time period is the fact that these are very much European males, and they probably weren’t thinking about someone like me when they were making the work,” says Pierre. “I get to take whatever I want from history and reframe it all to include what I want to see.” The apocalyptic images, wondrous beasts, and angelic beings that are found throughout The Met Cloisters are direct visual and spiritual antecedents to the work she creates today. While she draws upon the visual and thematic traditions of these works, the artist’s universe is freed from a strictly religious context, embracing change, multiplicity, and mystery. After years spent exploring the world she captures in her paintings, Pierre has come to learn from the characters who inhabit it and, like them, finds ways to embrace her own desire for transformation and transcendence.