Artist Statement

I exist at an intersection of traditional machismo Latino culture and shifting notions of gender identity—a lonely place. This existence is a confusing one, but I embrace that within my work.

My lens-based work is deeply personal, but often incorporates performative elements in order to engage my audience as active participants, not just as viewers. Through my work I interrogate collective memory, applying feminist themes in order to explore manifestations of trauma within domestic spaces. This includes the stigma around sexual trauma, and generational trauma specific to the women and queer people of color who experience it the most. Though my images often offer viewers a sense of discomfort, I work to generate through performance a space wherein viewers are invited to lean in with the knowledge of shared feeling and collective experience. I invite my viewers to recognize their individual discomfort while also experiencing the work together.

I often engage with participants either during the making of the work itself or in its presentation, this includes performative readings, Q&A’s, or through intimate one-on-one conversation. I believe that art should not be confined to the walls of a gallery or theater. It should be an experience that we carry with us.

The images I make are all connected within my own search for healing, for answers. They scream. They make demands. They tell a story. I choose to be direct in my making, untangling sexual traumas and daily abuses in an attempt to discover the ways they exist and take up space within the body—my body and yours.

Exhibition History

2020: 20/20 Print Exchange, The Ink Shop in conjunction with Limerick Printmakers Studio & Gallery, Ithaca, NY & Limerick, Ireland

2019: My Hand Follows, Film Screening at Deli Gallery, Brooklyn, NY

2019: Follow My Hand, MFA Graduate Art Exhibition at Deli Gallery, Ithaca, NY

2018: Generations of Submission, The Studio in conjunction with Ithaca Fantastik Film Festival, Ithaca, NY

2018: Enhanced Matt(e), Handwerker Gallery, Ithaca, NY

2017: Misaligned, Gimme! Coffee State Street, Ithaca, NY

2017: Wanderlust, Park School of Communications Photo Gallery, Ithaca, NY

2017: IC/CU, The Ink Shop, Ithaca, NY

2016: Vemodalen, The Studio, Ithaca, NY

Books & Publications

2020: HOO HA, Published by Naan Cül Press

2020: Select works from Obscenities, Published in Soft Lightning Vol. 1

2019: Mija, excerpts from arco iris, Published by Gato Negro Ediciones in conjunction with iTi Press

2019: The Intervention I Ordered, Published in Puzzazz 04

Awards

2020: Houston Center for Photography Master Class BIPOC Scholarship Recipient