Claudia La Bianca has always loved superheroes.
“That was my main thing when I was little,” she says. “Throughout the years, they’ve always been something I’ve been fascinated by.”
La Bianca says that, as a child growing up in Bagheria, Sicily, her love of superheroes helped her endure bullying and influenced her later work. She has since become known for her murals depicting strong, sexy, confident women and carrying messages of female empowerment. Many of the works adorn walls in Wynwood; in 2018, Unite in Love, which shows Michelle Obama and Melania Trump embracing in front of a stylized American flag, drew national attention. A series of recurring characters she calls her “Graffiti Girls” seem oddly appropriate for the moment: They wear spray-paint cans in their hair as rollers and protect their faces with masks.
Now La Bianca is turning her attention to the nurses on the frontlines of the COVID-19 pandemic, hoping to remind them that they too are superheroes.
Read the full story at Miami New Times.
Photos by Hialeah Hospital and Claudia La Bianca, via Miami New Times
