Mercedes Nugent-Head is a French-Caribbean artist born on the island of Guadeloupe. Her artistic journey reflects both a deep academic foundation and a profound engagement with her cultural heritage.
After five years working in fundraising for museums and theaters, she joined the Art Students League of New York in 2000, where she spent a decade immersed in drawing, painting, color theory, and composition. Her studies were further enriched by seminars at the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and the Florence Academy of Art in Italy, grounding her practice in both European traditions and a transatlantic perspective.
In 2009, Mercedes became part of Chelsea’s dynamic artist collective ‘Cold Castle,’ where she discovered her true vocation in portraiture and landscape. By 2018 she had relocated her studio to Harlem, New York, a move that marked a pivotal moment in her career. During the COVID-19 pandemic, she turned inward, drawing inspiration from her Creole and Afro-Caribbean roots to produce works that explore ancestry, memory, and belonging.
Her new body of work, “Negritude and Creolite”, represent paintings and collages that symbolize the intertwined visual legacies of her African, Carib-Indian, and East-Indian heritage. These pieces reflect on identity in a post-colonial world while celebrating resilience and cultural continuity.
Mercedes’s art has been exhibited in group shows across New York City and solo exhibitions in France, and her works are held in private collections in New York, Europe, and Mexico. She is commissioned for landscapes and murals but mainly for portraits, affirming her reputation as an artist who captures both likeness and spirit.
email: mercedesanh@gmail.com
tel: 347 522 0555