The first nail art piece to be exhibited in a Danish museum

Nadia Jensen of @nanailsdk captivated the nail industry after her installation ‘Consequences’ became the first nail art piece to be exhibited at Statens Museum in Denmark. With a focus on the consequences of animal cruelty, Nadia explains the concept behind her work and why this piece is such an important milestone for the industry.

After graduating as a nail technician in February 2017, Nadia participated in various nail competitions around the world and found success over. Some of her achievements include earning 2^nd place in the category ‘Fantasy Nail Art’ at Nailympia London 2017 and reaching the top 24 out of several thousands of competitors at Nails’ Next Top Nail Artist in 2018.

It wasn’t until lockdown hit in March 2020 where Nadia was forced to close her salon and went down a different path of being an educator and creating the group ‘Quarantinails’ where they held daily nail art competitions.

The global pandemic also gave Nadia the chance to reflect on other issues happening in society. When offered the chance to create a contemporary art piece for ‘The Goodiepal Collection’ at the Statens Museum in Denmark, she had no doubt that she wanted to raise awareness about the issues of animal welfare, whilst using her knowledge of nails and nail art to make the piece out of nail tips.

“In Denmark, more than 300,000 mink were slaughtered during the pandemic. With my background for animal welfare and the environment, I had no doubt what it was going to be about, and when the exhibition leader saw it, he chose it to be in the exhibition” revealed Nadia.

The work “Consequences” shows a bloody, furry, dead mink. The fur and skin are lifted off and only the internal organs are shown. The muscles are in focus while the eyelids, nose and foot pads are gone, with only a few bits of fur seen on the mink.

In addition, the mink is located in a very small stable cage without a base, so it can only step on bars, demonstrating that there is too little space for the mink.

The process

The whole mink is built with nail tips. Nadia put together large, small, wide, thin, brine and short tips to fit the muscles on the mink, while also burning the tips to shape them correctly into the curves the mink has.

The nails and teeth of the mink are from the top of the stiletto tips. The eyes are a small tip, burned beyond recognition so it became small enough to fit a mink’s eyes and the tips were glued together and then painted in a blood shade of red so it looks like the mink has fur. To paint the mink, Nadia used acrylic paint.

A milestone for the industry

“This work is a huge step and really important for the nail industry because, for the first time in Danish nail history, nails have been recognised as art. In Denmark, we have all always been told “it’s just nails” and have not received any respect from either the state or society in our profession” said Nadia.

“However, with the great publicity around my work, people have gained a little more understanding and insight into our passion and for our crafts. Even technicians from the industry have gained more self-confidence and now deem their work as art.”

To learn more about Nadia’s piece ‘Consequences’, click here.