Minneapolis, Minnesota — Amid ongoing community grief over recent deaths linked to federal immigration operations, local artist Noval Noir has created powerful street-side portraits honoring Alex Pretti and Renee Nicole Good, drawing attention and emotional response from residents and visitors alike.
Noval Noir has been painting large, life-size portraits of both Pretti and Good at sites in Minneapolis where memorials have grown in the wake of their deaths. In early January.
Videos and photos circulating on social media showed Noir working live on a portrait of Renee Nicole Good near Portland Avenue, close to the location where she was fatally shot by a federal agent.
Good, a 37-year-old mother of three, was killed during an encounter with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents.
Footage of her street memorial shows community members placing flowers, praying and gathering in her memory, and Noir’s portrait became a focal point of that remembrance scene.
More recently, Noval Noir has also incorporated a tribute to Alex Pretti, whose death earlier this year during an immigration operation in Minneapolis sparked widespread protest and debate.
Community-generated memorials for Pretti have likewise become places where residents come together to mourn and to reflect on the circumstances surrounding his killing.
In social media postings accompanying his work, Noir has emphasized that his art is not meant for sale but as a means of remembrance and healing, transforming public spaces into sites of collective memory for victims whose deaths have resonated beyond their families to larger civic concerns.
Supporters at the memorial sites have described watching families pray, children place flowers, and neighbors embrace one another as Noir paints, reinforcing the sense that the portraits serve as both tribute and catalyst for community solidarity.
The portraits have drawn attention from local residents and activists who have been critical of federal immigration tactics, seeing Noir’s work as elevating public mourning into a visual record of loss and resilience.
Whether through quiet reflection or organized gatherings, the memorial paintings by Noval Noir continue to draw visitors and spark conversations about civic life, justice and remembrance in Minneapolis.
