Four painters at Art of NOMA show how wide contemporary abstraction can be: Giselle Fenig, Roti Martínez, Nuria Oliva and Fernanda Rivero. Each one reaches abstraction by a different road, through accident, ancestral symbol, memory or raw energy, and each has original works available now. This guide explains what sets each practice apart and how to choose between them.
None of these artists paints abstraction as decoration. In every case the image starts somewhere specific, a feeling, a deity, a kitchen, a current of energy, and the painting keeps that origin even when no recognizable figure survives. That is what makes them worth watching: the work holds up to a long look, and it rewards the collector who learns where it comes from.
What makes abstract painting worth collecting right now?
Abstraction asks more of the viewer than a portrait or a landscape does, and it gives more back. A figurative painting tells you what you are looking at in the first second. An abstract painting makes you stay. Color, surface and gesture carry the meaning, so the work changes with the light in a room, with the distance you stand from it and with the mood you bring to it.
For a collector, that makes abstraction unusually easy to live with. It does not compete with furniture or date quickly with fashion, and it sits comfortably beside photography, prints or figurative work. A strong abstract canvas can anchor a room on its own, or hold its place in a mixed wall without fighting its neighbors.
The four painters below were chosen because their routes into abstraction are clearly different. Reading them side by side is a quick way to find out which kind of abstraction you respond to, before you commit to a single work.
Giselle Fenig turns accident into a working method
Giselle Fenig was born in Brooklyn, New York, in 1969 and moved to Mexico City at the age of four. Her process is deeply personal: the gallery describes her art as an external manifestation of her inner self, her emotions and her energy. She experiments with different materials and methods, looking for images that express freedom and spontaneity.
The most distinctive part of her practice is how she treats chance. The result is always unpredictable, even for the artist, and she considers accidents a fundamental part of the creative process. Instead of correcting a stray mark, she follows it, and the work finds new paths as it goes.
Her paired works Untitled I and Untitled II, both mixed media on paper from 2021 at 100 × 70 cm, show the approach clearly. The missing titles are deliberate: they keep the work in the realm of intuition and hand perception back to the viewer. Marks overlap and accumulate across a tall vertical surface, and the image never quite settles. For a fuller picture of her practice, read our spotlight Giselle Fenig: Abstraction as an Inner Eye.
Roti Martínez carries ancestral symbols into pure color
Roti Martínez was born in Aguascalientes, Mexico, in 1984. The work is born from color as a universal language. Martínez works in watercolor but primarily in acrylic, drawing on Mexico, nature, women, plants and animals. Pre-Hispanic codices are a key source, a way to explore ancestral symbols and bring them into the present.
What makes the practice unusual is that the symbol is never illustrated literally. A title names the source, and the painting translates it into mood, rhythm and contrast. Tepeyollotl (2021, acrylic on canvas, 60 × 50 cm) draws on the Aztec deity of mountains, echoes and the jaguar, and its directional marks build a sense of vibration that answers the title's theme of resonance. Mázatl, from the Nahuatl word for deer, works the same way at a smaller scale.
The process moves between control and intuition, with water and pigment allowed to surprise the painter. Martínez wants each piece to transmit energy, joy and a connection to roots. The canvases come framed in natural pine, ready to hang. Our spotlight Roti Martínez: Instinct and Symbol Painted Into Abstraction goes deeper into the codex references.
Nuria Oliva builds memory from fragments and raw cotton
Nuria Oliva was born in Murcia, Spain, in 1990 and lives and works in Asturias. She is a contemporary abstract artist whose work explores color as a structure of cycles and transformation. Her compositions use contrast, gesture and superimposition to create tension and balance at the same time.
Her subject matter is closer to home than the word abstraction suggests. Domestic ritual, family and memory run through the work, and she often leaves the raw cotton canvas partly bare so the weave becomes part of the image. In Piezas de energía (2026, oil and pastel on raw gray cotton, 118 × 88 cm), the heart moves to the center, not as a literal symbol but as a nucleus in transformation. The pastel sits dry and powdery against the oil.
Oliva also works at the opposite end of the scale. Her Smoothie pieces are small squares of acrylic and resin, 28.5 cm a side, where the poured resin seals the color under a glassy skin. Between the large Piezas de lo que somos series and the Smoothie works, her collection offers both a statement canvas and a compact entry point. Read more in Nuria Oliva: Painting Memory, Home and Domestic Ritual.
Fernanda Rivero paints energy on a monumental scale
Fernanda Rivero was born in Monterrey, Mexico, in 1983. Her practice sits at the intersection of art, spirituality, the body and community. For her, identity is a force in motion, shaped by the relationship with landscape, community and natural cycles. She has exhibited in Mexico and at international fairs including Saatchi Art in Los Angeles (2019) and Red Dot in Miami (2021).
Rivero paints from intuition, and her large canvases behave like a record of a current rather than a picture of something. She works directly into raw canvas, so the untreated cloth absorbs the paint and the marks stay visible and unresolved. The materials are layered for their different jobs: acrylic for structure, pastel for soft transitions, charcoal for raw linear gesture.
Scale is central to the effect. Life Force measures 180 × 150 cm and takes vitality itself as its subject, carried through motion and material. Full Moon and Your Soul Knows, both 140 × 120 cm, complete the group of named large works. These are paintings for a wall that can give them room. Our spotlight Fernanda Rivero: Intuition, Energy and Raw Canvas covers the practice in full.
How should you choose between four abstract approaches?
Start with what pulls you in. If you like work that feels private and open-ended, Fenig's untitled works on paper leave the most room for your own reading. If you want a story behind the color, Martínez's canvases carry named sources from Aztec and Nahuatl tradition that you can learn and share. If texture and material matter most, Oliva's raw cotton and resin surfaces reward a close look. If you want a painting that changes the energy of a whole room, Rivero's large canvases do exactly that.
Then consider the space. The range here runs from Oliva's 28.5 cm Smoothie squares to Rivero's 180 × 150 cm Life Force, so there is a realistic option for a hallway, a study or a double-height living room. Fenig's works on paper ship rolled in a protective tube, ready for framing, which lets you choose a frame that suits your interior. Martínez's canvases arrive framed in natural pine; Oliva's and Rivero's come mounted or stretched on wooden frames.
Finally, look at each artist's full collection before you decide. Seeing several works together shows you the consistency of a practice, which is often the clearest sign of an artist worth following. Every work mentioned here is unique and comes with a certificate of authenticity.
Frequently Asked Questions
Which abstract painters does Art of NOMA feature in this guide?
This guide covers four painters with original works available at Art of NOMA: Giselle Fenig, born in Brooklyn and raised in Mexico City; Roti Martínez from Aguascalientes, Mexico; Nuria Oliva from Murcia, Spain, who works in Asturias; and Fernanda Rivero from Monterrey, Mexico.
How large are the abstract works by these artists?
Sizes vary widely. Nuria Oliva's Smoothie works measure 28.5 cm square, Giselle Fenig's Untitled works on paper are 100 × 70 cm, Roti Martínez's Tepeyollotl is 60 × 50 cm, and Fernanda Rivero's Life Force reaches 180 × 150 cm.
Do these paintings arrive ready to hang?
Most do. Roti Martínez's canvases are framed in natural pine, and Nuria Oliva's and Fernanda Rivero's paintings are mounted or stretched on wooden frames. Giselle Fenig's works on paper ship rolled in a protective tube, ready for framing. Every work includes a certificate of authenticity.
How do I choose my first abstract painting?
Start with the approach that draws you in: open-ended works on paper, symbol-led color, textured raw cotton or large-scale energy. Then measure your wall, and view the artist's full collection to see how consistent the practice is before choosing a single work.