Artist Statement

Tanya Garcia is motivated by personal disconnect to homeland as a diasporan and second generation Puerto Rican, and is invested in the exploring the intersections between land, body, and memory as a process of redefining her relationship to place. With this framework, she engages with themes and theories of colonialism, diaspora, and forms of adaptation that exist not only within the body, but the geographical landscape. Garcia understands body as a multiplicity of forms not specific to humans and that bodies that have potential to affect and be affected. The purpose of her work is to complicate the geographical and socio-political narratives through time-based media such as photography, audio, video, and performance. In the past, her work referred to concepts of borders, immigration, and social difference in collaboration with communities local to Baltimore, Maryland.

Bio

Garcia is an interdisciplinary artist and educator based in Baltimore, MD. She was raised in Florida, Puerto Rico, and South Carolina. In 2014, Garcia received her MFA at the Maryland Institute College of Ar and is the recipient of awards such as the Robert W. Deutsch Foundation’s Fellowship in collaboration with Creative Alliance, as well as the Intercultural Leadership Institute’s 2018-19 national fellowship cohort. She participated in residencies including ACRE and awarded TrueQué’s curated residency in Ecuador themed, Natural Hybrids: Frictions Between Art and Ecology. Garcia was also co-founder of an internationally recognized literary arts publication, HYRSTERIA.

Contact

tanya.d.garcia@gmail.com