“Vanity Projects” takes the concept of nail art quite literally. Founded by independent curator, Rita de Alencar Pinto, in 2008, the downtown New York nail atelier and gallery serves to combine the art world with the nail salon.
What started as a pop-up developed into a salon that offers an artist-in-residence program, offering the top international nail artists the chance to engage and experience the exchange of technique and ideas. It now includes innovative nail artists, that Pinto often discovers through Instagram.
Pinto’s idea proved to be successful, and in April 2015, Vanity Projects opened its second location in Miami, Florida, and recently relocated to The Design District. Since opening, its nail art has appeared in over 50 publications. In addition to editorial spreads, their nail artists have assisted and lead runways shows at Mercedes Benz Fashion Week in New York and Miami Swim.
Nail artist from Vanity Projects have also been invited to participate in pop-ups at the Pulizer Foundation in St. Louis, the Brooklyn Museum, the Aldrich Museum, Los Angeles Contemporary Art Fair, NADA Miami Beach, Sculpture Center, and the Aspen Museum of Art.
In other words: they make fine art nails that are creative as they are funky. And though their manicures come at a hefty price, taking a glimpse at their Instagram page (with more than 100 thousand followers), proves it’s clearly worth it.
