On Tuesday evening, the Newton Cultural Alliance at the Allen Center hosted a talk with Dinorá Justice, a Brazilian-American and locally based artist, whose work is currently exhibited in the Allen Center’s main gallery in her collection of artwork titled, Seeing As We Are.

In the Newton Cultural Alliance’s spring collection of exhibitions titled, Women Seeing Women, Justice is the last of four female artists whose work is displayed in the collection.

Justice uses her artwork to depict female figures blended into mesmerizing, colorful patterns. Her work explores the complexities of ecology and the use of language to describe nature through a feminine point of view.

“Phrases like ‘mother nature’ carry a legacy—one that genders the Earth, casting it into roles of nurturing and submission,” said Justice. “This feminization is not neutral … It exposes the same structures that permit both environmental degradation and social violence.”

Justice not only critiques these cultural usages of language through her artwork but also challenges viewers to reflect on their own relationship with the culture they find themselves in.

“By examining these linguistic and cultural imprints, I seek to unearth how inherited metaphors guide our behavior and how reimagining them might shift our relationship to the living systems we inherit,” said Justice.

Some of Justice’s paintings exhibited at the Allen Center were inspired by the canonical works of Western art, including 19th-century artwork portraying women by French artist Eugène Delacroix.

“[Justice] had a thought about Delacroix, how he handled women, what she feels about nature, and what she loves about florals,” said Peter Vanderwarker, curator of the exhibition. “That’s hard to do, and that’s where the magic is.”

Her artwork borrows female figures from canonical works and challenges the viewer’s perception of women.

“You look at the European masters, which she uses as her base, where we see exploitation of women and clothes, because that’s the way things were in the 1800s and 1900s,” said Iggy Rabinovich, a former painter.

Iggy Rabinovich elaborated on how Justice empowers women through intertwining historical artwork and nature.

“[Justice] chooses to take [the women] out of that context and put them in a context of nature and beauty,” said Rabinovich. “You no longer see the woman as an object but see her as part of life and nature.”

Even though Justice’s work focuses on heavy, dark topics like environmental degradation, exploitation, and social violence, while striving to communicate ecofeminist movements, the art is simultaneously colorful and offers the viewer a space to reflect.

“I think my love for the world and nature is stronger, and I want to celebrate what we still have and maybe inspire people to preserve more or try to be more sustainable,” said Justice.

For the base of her vibrant artwork, Justice uses marbling techniques to create fluid patterns inspired by nature. Marbling is the process of combing and swirling paint drips on a surface of water or solution to make swirly patterns before transferring the pattern to a surface.

“I’m drawn to fluid patterns, since they speak naturally of water and plants of growth and change,” said Justice. “My vision is slow and laborious but also full of enchantment.”

After the patterns are on the canvas, she paints different layers of patterns on top with oil, creating pieces that depict the female figure blended with nature. The face of the female is unknown, as the marbled pattern takes up the space reserved for the face.

“I didn’t want to put the features in the faces or the figures, because I’m not interested in the particular person,” said Justice. “I’m interested in the connection of the human with the environment.”

Rachel Rabinovich, a Massachusetts resident, explained her interpretation of the female figures blending in with organic patterns, relating to the force of nature.

“Ultimately, we can disappear into nature, and nature wins,” said Rabinovich. “It is beautiful and glorious, and it’s a dark topic, but it’s also celebratory.”

Newton resident Scott Aquilina praised the artist’s work for its authenticity, craftsmanship, and integration of personal interests such as European painting, Brazilian textiles, women’s issues, and abstraction.

“She’s drawing from a lot of different sources of things that are very interesting and personal to her, but everything is grounded in this craft that she has, which I really like,” said Aquilina.

Aquilina also admired the artist’s ability to create smooth, layered paintings that are decorative and colorful.

“I think she’s just very skilled in how she can layer all these different elements under the background,” said Aquilina.

Justice’s artwork was exhibited at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston last spring in The Lay of the Land, and her artwork in Seeing As We Are will remain at the Allen Center until May 21.

_{This story is from The Heights, an independent, nonprofit newspaper run by Boston College students with which the Newton Beacon has a partnership.}