Some aunties smile with sushi rolls and rice balls in their hair, while others float through neon streets with oversized futuristic shopping bags, or are massaged by cloud-like plastic jelly shapes in lavender fields. They sport tightly coiled “auntie buns” and exude boundless energy.
Behind the name “Niceaunties” is a Singaporean artist and architect who herself grew up surrounded by many aunties as well as her grandmother.
In Southeast Asia, she told Kulturaustausch, aunties do not have a very good reputation. “They are seen as pragmatic but also sharp-tongued and domineering,” she said, adding that at family gatherings, aunties will bluntly tell you that you looked better the last time or that you've gained weight. Then they'll immediately offer you platefuls of yet more delicious food.
“For my generation, being called ‘auntie’ is not a compliment,” she said. “I want to reframe the term, to celebrate it. Aunties are powerful, they do so much, they are everywhere—and yet in our society, they are mostly invisible.”
For her work, she uses AI tools to transform the aunties, making them brightly colored heroines who take centre stage in colourful fantasy worlds. Her work can be seen on her website Niceaunties — and increasingly also in analogue exhibitions, for example at Christie’s in London or Paris Photo Art Fair 2025.
But, she added, the growing international recognition of these virtual older women often stands in stark contrast to the hard grind of their daily lives.
“With my grandmother, it was always about laundry, cooking, and making fish balls,” she recalls. “As a child, I sometimes saw her unhappy and secretly crying.”
Whether gliding naked on roller skates through the supermarket or dancing down the runway in a cabbage dress, these older women gain new, liberating possibilities. After all, as a banner on the website reads: “We all have an inner auntie.”
For more, go to niceaunties.com