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Naima Rauam is recognized for her watercolors of the South Street Seaport historic district and the Fulton Fish Market, which she has documented with her artwork since the mid–1960s. Naima works in watercolor, oil, charcoal, pastel and graphite.
Scenes of the New York waterfront also figure prominently in Naima’s work. Hitching rides on tugboats is her favorite way of getting close to nautical subjects and obtaining interesting views of the harbor. While exploring the harbor, Naima developed an interest in painting construction sites, and documented the progress of several projects, including the North Channel Bridge in Jamaica Bay, Queens. A series of watercolors of this bridge, done over a two-year period, is now in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.
Naima exhibits in solo and group shows here and abroad. Her work is in private, corporate and public collections, including the Smithsonian Institution, National Air & Space Museum, American Merchant Marine Museum, Farnsworth Museum, Pfizer, and Bank of America. She also lectures, teaches, and curates art exhibits. She is based at the South Street Seaport, New York City.
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Naima shared space with Meyer & Thompson Smoked Fish Company on Beekman Street, living and working in the same building where cod was smoked and sold. Starting in 1984, the ground-floor sales area was her studio-gallery, Art in the Afternoon (fish in the morning). When the fishmongers, who operated in the early morning hours, left each day, Naima set up her art display and painted in the afternoons. The art gallery was dismantled each evening to make way for fish again the next night. The building was sold in 1997, ending the unusual arrangement. Fishmongers in the landmarked Tin Building offered Naima studio space, where she painted until the market moved in 2005. Her studio is still in the area, but is no longer in a fish house. |
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