My work operates at the intersection of painting and appliqué, combining found fabrics, painted linen, and embroidery. I construct layered, abstract compositions that are hand sewn with a visible stitch that is both functional and decorative. Each piece is stretched and presented like a painting, with an optically rich surface that rewards close inspection.

The work is driven by a sustained interest in embodiment, and informed by a decades-long yoga practice. Philosophical and visual ideas merge to express the quiet exuberance of living in a body. Through layering, transparency, and juxtaposition of pattern, I create dynamic visual structures that invoke the presence of an animating energy. Serpentine shapes suggest an awkwardness to our beauty, and a subtle asymmetry serves as a counterpoint to the quest for balance. 

I use thread as a unifying element—simple yet potent—binding together disparate fragments into coherent wholes. My process celebrates texture, irregularity, and the handmade, allowing the material to speak as much as the image. These works are meant to hold contradictions: they are soft but exacting, fragile yet often bold, anchored in abstraction, alive with physicality. They reflect a practice committed to revealing the layered nature of perception—felt, seen, and stitched into form.

Nina Grubin (b. 1959) is a visual artist who creates handsewn fabric collage influenced by her yoga practice, and her experience as a labor and delivery nurse. She lives and works in Chatham, New York. She received a BFA with honors in printmaking from the School of Art+Design at Purchase College in Purchase, New York in 1982. Nina received a MS in nursing from the Lienhard School of Nursing at Pace University in Pleasantville, New York in 1985. She achieved certification as a nurse midwife after attending the Institute of Midwifery, Women, and Health at Philadelphia University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 2002. Nina received authorization to teach Level 1 Ashtanga yoga from Sharath Jois in Mysore, India in 2005.