A solo exhibition featuring new works by Maria De Los Angeles, a temporary large-scale mixed media community mural and several identity garments created by the community during a series of workshops. A major focal point of the exhibition will be storytelling through two dimensional works and garment like sculptures. The wearable sculptures, constructed from traditional fine art materials, and recycled materials, are worn in performances by me and by volunteers. For me they are an incorporation of the body, the body as a canvas, and platform for a political and social discussion.

Maria de Los Angeles, a Mexican-born, New York City-based artist, whose imagery focuses on issues of migration, displacement, identity and otherness, working primarily in drawing, painting, installation, performance, fashion, and sculpture.  She creates narratives by drawing from observation, memory and imagination. Her personal history plays a decisive role in her work. As an undocumented immigrant, and one of the nearly 650,000 so-called Dreamers who immigrated to America as a child, she learned to navigate a new culture and language through a variety of artistic methods. Her body of work deconstructs references to and inferences about “American citizenship,” including individual and collective responsibility and stereotypes of the immigrant community, specifically of undocumented peoples.

Special thanks to The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the award of a $10,000 grant to support the project.