I am a graduate from the School of Visual Arts in 2005 with a degree in Fine Arts. During that time, I focused on performance art, trance states, and native traditions. Following these interests I have collaborated with native communities and relatives to create photo based projects. I have worked with the Mam (an indigenous group close to the border with Mexico) in Guatemala, with the Mandaeans (an ethnic between Iraq and Iran) living in Sweden, with the Waoranis in the Amazon, and more recently in the Andean Mountains. I am interested in digging for psychic gold, in threading personal and collective narratives exploring to explore the peripheries of memory, storytelling, myth and perception to encounter the myriads of ways in which photography can create platforms for diversion and reflection. I have exhibited in the Portrait Gallery at the Smithsonian Museum in Washington, DC, Queens museum, I have participated in the Musee Quai du Branly biennial and received their artist in residence fellowship in 2017. I have participated in 2 NYT portfolio reviews, Fotofest in Houston, in the 3rd Latin American forum in Sao Paulo, Brazil. I had a solo show at Yoshinaga gallery in NYC in 2018, a monograph of Other Stories by Autograph ABP came out the same year, and, recently, I have been nominated for the Prix Pictet on HOPE and shortlisted for the Hariban award.
Artist Statement
Although my main medium is photography, this particular body of work are drawings of pigments on gampi paper. Pain and pleasure are both intense and essential living experiences. This work generates from my observations in their relationship and how the body is a mechanism prone at storing and retaining tension, especially at certain areas that are needed for mobility. These drawings are mental maps of points of distress and relief in the body. When following the topology of the shape and color, each of these drawings are intended to act as allies for relaxation. I am inspired by wisdom traditions that use visual aid for meditation, and allowing the observer to go deeper and explore other territories within their psyche. These drawings follow a similar line of thought, but as many things; they can also be interpreted freely.
