The Artwork at Kissa Kissa

Six original oil paintings by co-founder Nina Barry line the walls of Kissa Kissa — portraits of jazz musicians reimagined from the album covers that shaped the sound of this room.

The Collection

The Jazz Portraits

Oil on canvas. Each painting reimagines a classic jazz album cover in a single dominant color, removing text and design elements to isolate the portrait beneath.

Jutta Hipp

Jutta Hipp at the Hickory House · Blue Note · 1956

Hipp was the first European and the first white woman signed to Blue Note Records — a German pianist who arrived in New York in 1955 and quickly earned a coveted six-month residency at the Hickory House. She recorded three albums in a single year before abruptly withdrawing from music entirely. She returned to painting and worked as a seamstress in Queens for 35 years, losing all contact with the music world until Blue Note tracked her down in 2000 to deliver decades of unpaid royalties.

Oil on canvas · 20″ x 20″

Andrew Hill

Black Fire · Blue Note · 1964

Hill’s debut for Blue Note was recorded over two days at Van Gelder Studio with Joe Henderson on tenor, Richard Davis on bass, and Roy Haynes on drums. The album marked the beginning of one of the most extraordinary creative streaks in jazz — Hill recorded four landmark albums in just four months. The original cover, designed by Reid Miles with Francis Wolff’s photography, is among the most iconic images in the Blue Note catalog.

Oil on canvas · 20″ x 20″

Barry Harris

Preminado · Riverside · 1961

Harris was a Detroit-born bebop master and one of the most important piano educators in jazz history — a direct musical descendant of Bud Powell and Thelonious Monk who spent decades teaching the language of bebop to new generations. This trio album with Joe Benjamin on bass and Elvin Jones on drums captures his lyrical, swinging style at its finest. Harris passed away in 2021 at the age of 91, having kept the bebop flame burning for over sixty years.

Oil on canvas · 24″ x 24″

Shirley Scott

Soul Searching · Prestige · 1959

Known as the “Queen of the Organ,” Scott was a Philadelphia-born Hammond B3 master who originally studied piano and trumpet before taking up the organ in the 1950s. She recorded prolifically for Prestige and Impulse!, blending bebop harmonies with blues and gospel in a style that was distinctly her own. In a male-dominated field and era, her liner notes once patronizingly noted that she did “a man-sized job” — but Scott’s artistry spoke for itself across more than fifty albums.

Oil on canvas · 36″ x 36″

Toshiko Akiyoshi

George Wein Presents: The Toshiko Trio · Storyville · 1956

Discovered by Oscar Peterson in a Tokyo club in 1953, Akiyoshi became the first Japanese student at Berklee when she enrolled on a full scholarship in 1956. She went on to receive fourteen Grammy nominations and was the first woman to win Best Arranger and Composer in the Down Beat Readers’ Poll. This early trio session with Ed Thigpen and Paul Chambers captures her in the Bud Powell-influenced bop style that first brought her to international attention.

Oil on canvas · 36″ x 36″

Randy Weston

Tanjah · Polydor · 1973

Weston was a Brooklyn-born pianist who spent his career bridging jazz and African musical traditions — first recording the landmark Uhuru Afrika in 1960 (which was banned in South Africa), then moving to Morocco in the mid-1960s to deepen his connection to the continent’s musical roots. Tanjah found him revisiting classics like “Hi-Fly” and “Little Niles” through lush arrangements by Melba Liston, backed by a 19-piece ensemble including Ron Carter. It earned a Grammy nomination for Best Jazz Performance by a Big Band.

Oil on canvas · 36″ x 36″

The Artist

Nina Barry

Nina Barry, artist and co-founder of Kissa Kissa

Nina Barry is the co-founder of Kissa Kissa and the artist behind the jazz portraits and other paintings that help define the space. Working in oil on canvas, she translates iconic album cover photography of the 1950s, ’60s, and ’70s into bold, monochromatic paintings — each rendered in a single dominant color that strips the original image down to mood and gesture.

The subjects are intentional. Nina’s series highlights boundary-crossers and underrepresented voices in jazz: the first European woman signed to Blue Note, a pioneering Japanese pianist at Berklee, the Queen of the Hammond B3 organ, a Pan-Africanist composer whose work was banned in South Africa but walked these very Brooklyn streets. These are artists who challenged what a jazz musician could look like, sound like, and come from.

The paintings take artistic license — omitting the typography, label logos, and design elements of the original covers to focus entirely on the human presence. What remains is the essence of a portrait: the tilt of a chin, the curl of cigarette smoke, the quiet confidence of someone who belongs at the instrument.

Soviet-born, Nina moved to the United States with dreams of becoming an artist. She earned her BFA just up the block at Pratt Institute and her MFA in Painting from the New York Academy of Art. For the past 17 years, Nina has run a nationally renowned photography studio with her husband, Danny, with whom she started the kissa. They split time between Denver and Brooklyn with their two kids.

Art & The Space

Part of the Experience

At Kissa Kissa, the paintings are not decoration. They are part of the same conversation as the 5,000 vintage jazz LPs, the Harbeth speakers, the ModWright tube amplification — part of a deliberate effort to create a space where every detail serves the music.

The artists on the walls are often the same ones on the turntable. You might hear Barry Harris’s Preminado while sitting beneath his portrait, or catch Shirley Scott’s blues-drenched organ while her gaze follows you from across the room. The records and the paintings speak to each other — two ways of preserving the same moment in time.

These are originals, painted by one of the people who built this room. They exist here because this is where they belong.

Commissions & Inquiries

Bring the Music Home

Nina accepts commissions for new original oil paintings in her signature monochromatic style. Whether it’s a favorite album cover from the Kissa Kissa collection, a personal jazz hero, or a record that changed your life — each commission is a one-of-a-kind work painted by hand.

Commissions start at $2,500 depending on size and complexity. Select paintings currently on display at Kissa Kissa may also be available for purchase — reach out to inquire about availability and pricing.

To discuss a commission or inquire about an existing piece, please get in touch.

Art Inquiries

For commissions, purchases, or any questions about the artwork at Kissa Kissa, please reach out to Nina directly on Instagram or by email