Lina Puerta will be in residence from February - March 2023.
Lina Puerta is a contemporary visual artist who was born in New Jersey, raised in Colombia, and currently lives and works in NYC. Her rich, multidisciplinary practice includes sculpture, installation, collage, handmade-paper painting, and what the artist calls “wall hangings” made of a wide range of materials including artificial plants and found, personal, and recycled objects. In doing so, Lina taps into her Colombian American heritage to explore the balance between nature versus human construct, societal power imbalances, and the connection with the self to ancestral knowledge.
Lina holds an MS in Art Education from CUNY and has exhibited extensively in the United States as well as abroad including at the Sugar Hill Children’s Museum of Art (NY), the New York Botanical Garden, the Ford Foundation Gallery (NY), the Museum of Biblical Art (NY) and El Museo del Barrio (NY). Lina also has received a number of notable awards and residencies including the 2020 KODA Lab Artist-in-Residence, the 2017 Artist-in-Residence at the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans, and the 2015 Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant.
Lina Puerta, Moth(er), 2020, quilt made with digitally printed fabric (created during 2017 Joan Mitchell Foundation Artist Residency, of food wrappings from food consumed by fellow resident artists); discarded food nets, recycled fabrics; hand-woven, indigenous Guambiano (Colombian) belt; Peruvian textile and t-shirt previously worn by artist; fake fur, sequined and textured fabrics; shells from necklaces, previously worn by the artist, purchased or gifted while in Colombia and the Caribbean; crocheted flower made by artist’s late mother, repurposed buttons and googly eyes. 7 x 6 feet
Photo credit: Etienne Frossard
Lina Puerta, Untitled (Tree and Frame), 2014, concrete, Polyurethane foam, reed mesh, wire, paint, fabric, lace, leather, faux fur, artificial moss and plant, gilded frame, chains, broken jewelry, feathers, flocking, Swarovski crystals and beads, 57 x 38 x 5 inch
Lina Puerta, Broccoli Crop Workers, from the Latinx Farmworker Tapestries Series, 2017, handmade paper composed of pigmented cotton and linen paper pulp; embedded with lace, velvet, sequined fabrics, Aztec (Otomi) embroidered collar, fake fur; embedded by trims, appliqués, velvet ribbon, feathers, gouache and chains, 41 x 46 inch
Lina Puerta, Ave del Peritoneo, 2010, clay, glaze, sequins, swarovski crystals, appliqués, monofilament, urethane foam, artificial foliage and moss; modeling elements, water, water pump and vintage suitcase, 16 x 17.5 x 15 inch
Lina Puerta, Matorral, from the Botánico Series, 2014, Polyurethane foam, wood, resin, paint, fabric, fiberfill, rhinestones, trims, fringe, beads, chains, artificial plants and moss, 8 x 14 x 2 inch (installation variable)
Photo Credit: Gina Fuentes Walker, courtesy of The Museum of Biblical Art.