Karina Mago is a Venezuelan artist currently traveling throughout the United States. Raised in Caracas, then promptly transplanted to South Florida, she crafts images that are inspired by an immigrant’s sense of displacement. She received her BFA from Florida State University with concentrations in ceramics, painting and printmaking.
“My work is informed by my experiences as a Venezuelan immigrant; one who, like many, has lost the ability to both physically and emotionally return to her place of origin because she no longer belongs there. An individual whose fate was sealed by a decaying government that has ignored the needs of its citizens, while feasting on unceremoniously earned riches. I make in order to cope with that sense of loss of place, but also to celebrate the fact that I was lucky enough to escape. I am currently infatuated with the word assemblage; A combination of objects that at first seem unrelated, yet when placed within “order” in a space, they create a functioning balance. Like memories themselves, these objects can exist singularly, but only when assembled together do they reveal a larger, layered narrative. I seek to fully integrate the mediums of print and ceramics within a body of work, creating a number of installations that will speak of not just my experiences and memories as an immigrant, but encompass the ideas of displaced, shifting, fractured landscapes and their effects on any individual as a whole.”