OPA Live! Mapping & Art: Unearthing Inner Territories

OPA Live! returns to Instagram Live with this first session with Carolina Loyola-Garcia and Nayda Collazo-Llorens. Carolina and Nayda will discuss the challenges and experiences around devoting their lives to the arts as artists of Latin American origin living and working in the U.S.

Both work with electronic media and technology, a field traditionally dominated by men. As such, carving a path for diversity has at times been a daunting task. As part of the conversation, Carolina and Nayda will explore: how they navigate access to exhibitions, grants, and collaborations as artists of color; how their work symbolizes and demonstrates their artistic visions and concerns; and Nayda’s latest work, Rupturing, winner of the 2021 Envision Award.

To attend their discussion, follow OPA on Instagram @officeofpublicart.

About Carolina Loyola-Garcia

Carolina Loyola-Garcia is a multidisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and performer. She works primarily in media arts, including single-channel video art, video installations, video design for theater, digital printmaking, documentary, and as a performer has worked in theater and dance. She received her MFA from Carnegie Mellon University and is Professor of Media Arts at Robert Morris University.

Through her work she has explored topics related to social justice, the dislocated identity that results from colonialism and migration, and questionings around issues related to aspects of human existence such as relationships, the transient nature of the postmodern experience, memory, and the tense interaction between economy and the environment.

About Nayda Collazo-Llorens

Nayda Collazo-Llorens, born in San Juan, Puerto Rico, is a visual artist engaged in an interdisciplinary practice incorporating multiple mediums and strategies. She earned an MFA from New York University, a BFA from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, and is a former Pollock-Krasner Foundation Grant recipient. Her work has been exhibited at El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY; The Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, PA; Bass Museum of Art, Miami Beach, FL; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, San Juan, PR; and Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City, Mexico; among others. She currently lives and works in Kalamazoo, Michigan.