Nardstar, aka Nadia Fisher is a South African street art based in the beautiful ocean-side city of Cape Town – my home town. This talented female street artist combines African-style geometric designs with Westernised graphic design styles to create bold, joyful street art murals that convey the artist’s love of life and her country.
Inspired by a City of Culture
Cape Town is very cultural city, hosting many music festivals and arts and crafts markets all over its beautiful geography. For artists, the many and varied cultures that can be found in South Africa provide a wide range of sources of inspiration. Being at the most southern tip of Africa, Cape Town receives a lot of visits from those travelling the sea trade routes from Asia to Europe and the Americas.
This artist favours portraits of African women, young and old, celebrating the culture of her home country on the streets. Not only are there African and European cultures in South Africa; cultures from both the near and far east exist in the country too. This melting pot of cultures has long been referred to by South Africans as The Rainbow Nation. This colorful idea shines forth in Nadia Fisher’s colorful murals.
Inspired by Nature
South Africa has diverse flora and fauna and is famous for both. Lions, elephants, zebras and other art-worthy creatures live there and protea flowers, South Africa’s National Flower are coveted by gardeners and flower-lovers worldwide.
None of this natural inspiration is lost on street artist Nardstar. She incorporates South Africa’s cats, like lionesseses and caracals into her graffiti murals, along with beautiful flowers like proteas and pincushions. Insects, leaves, birds and other natural elements all add to the liveliness of Nardstar’s geometric street art.
Climate Change is Real
Fisher’s street art style is very eye-catching and brings joy to those who are privileged enough to witness them in person. As a graffiti artist, Nardstar’s artistic statement is clear – we live in a beautiful world and it’s up to us to protect it. The painter expresses this message not just by showing us how beautiful nature is, but by also building messages about climate change into her urban art works.