ABOUT BRANDUSA
Brandusa Niro, a contemporary multi-disciplinary artist based in Palm Beach and New York, traces her artistic lineage back to her upbringing in Romania. Immersed in a family of creatives, her aunt Geta Caragiu renowned as a sculptor and her uncle Toma Caragiu a legendary actor in both film and theatre, Niro's artistic journey started very early. Brandusa began garnering recognition by winning two Romanian National art competitions as a teenager, and captivating audiences on the silver screen, starring in the biggest blockbuster Romanian film "Uncle Marin, the Billionaire.”
Relocating to the United States via Paris, Niro became a titan in the media and publishing worlds eventually creating and running the Publishing division of IMG Media. In 2002, she laid the foundation for her legacy by founding the esteemed American Fashion industry publication, The Daily Front Row, where she was Editor in Chief and CEO until she sold the company at the end of 2025. Throughout these years, Brandusa Niro continued to create artwork and in mid-2024 she has signed with Miami’s Avant Gallery to begin showing her paintings.
Her first series of life-size acrylic portraits entitled ‘Models’ launched in July 2024 at the Hamptons Fine Arts Fair paying homage to the extraordinary women who have graced Niro's life and career. Working with the world’s top models from the very first moment they were discovered, the artist recaptured with each portrait’s brushstroke the innocence and beauty of that unique moment in time. Niro’s canvases are bathed in light, playing off a palette of saturated, powerful, bright colors, the perfect setting for the vast range of emotions and moods she expresses surrounding the concept of unfathomable, unmatched beauty. Brandusa’s muses are elongated and graceful with immense, luminous eyes that pierce the soul, while their oversized heads and long etherial limbs imbue them with an otherworldly allure. Their faces and bodies tell a story that seeps off the canvas into the soul and imagination of the viewer. The ‘Models’ series, created in a unique style of figurative expressionism, evokes sexiness and sensuality with an eerie, haunting quality, inviting viewers to experience beauty in a way that hasn’t been seen before.
In late 2024, Brandusa launched her About A Girl series, inspired by a chance meeting with a 10-year old named Jacqueline in St. Paul de Vence. Three Jacqueline paintings ensued, shown at Art Miami, Art Palm Beach and Palm Beach Modern+Contemporary. The Jacquelines were joined by a series of other young character portraits in a retro setting among them The Little Ballerina, The Violin Lesson, and three Swimmers: Swimmer Nice c. 1940, Swimmer St. Tropez c. 1940, Swimmer Monte Carlo, c 1950. Niro, who is also a talented published writer currently working on a memoir as well as a fiction series, explains: “I write a short story about each of my characters, and then turn that story into a painting.” It is no wonder that Brandusa’s portraits each tell a complex and fascinating story. Both “Models” and “About a Girl” were featured in solo presentations at Avant Gallery in December 2024 and April 2025, respectively.
In July 2025, Brandusa’s diptych “Summer” was auctioned off most successfully at the St Tropez Summer Gala, the top event of the season, during a live auction attended by luminaries like Leonardo DiCaprio, Rita Ora, Jamie Foxx, Christian Louboutin, and every important European art collector vacationing in St. Tropez.
Currently Brandusa is at work on a new series entitled Characters, her largest scale paintings to date, measuring 60 x 36, 48 x 48, and 48 x 36. She now works with oils on the finest linen canvases. The cast of Brandusa’s Characters is made of women whose personalities and style made a mark on her through the three decades she spent between New York, Milan, Rome, Florence, Paris, Monaco, St Tropez, and whom she poignantly brings to life through her paintings. A preview of this new series was shown as part of a group exhibition at Avant Gallery Miami Beach, December 4th, 2025. A fuller presentation of Characters was featured at Palm Beach Modern+Contemporary March 2026.
Brandusa’s paintings are now in several important collections worldwide, including fashion icon Tommy Hilfiger’s collection.