Artist Statement
Early experiences of dislocation, transnationality, cultural syncretism and resilience fuel my practice. I am fascinated by the ways in which we self-actualize based on myths; holding dear the experiences of girlhood/womanhood in personal/collective memory, paying special attention to those moments that haunt us. I excavate real-to-imagined moments with an aim to tell a much more complex story about and for low-income Latinxs on the periphery of America. My work draws heavily from academic and archival investigations into intersectional Chicana feminism and queer theory to see the synchronicities between the personal and the sociopolitical. While hardship and marginalization play out in the background of my work, I am foremost drawn to the lush internal worlds (projected outwards) of the individuals experiencing it. Particularly, the ways in which people self-actualize in the face of systemic barriers of lack that insist on humility. Myth and allegory functions as a labyrinthine vehicle that abstracts and protects the narratives I am fabulating. I honor tenderness in my approach as I go through complex processing that plays out in the paintings I make. At the same time, I honor a generosity and richness that derives from the variety of brownness and the Latinx experience.

Bio
Lorena Diosdado (she/her) is a visual artist working between Texas and California. Her practice considers a contentious sociopolitical history and its contemporary effects in the lives of Latinxs in the undercommons of the U.S.. Her work centers the rich ways marginalized Latinxs self actualize through myth-making in the face of hegemony. Lorena earned her B.A. in Art Practice with Honors and a minor in Education from Stanford University. She will graduate with an MFA in Studio Art at the University of Texas at Austin in May of 2025. Her work has been exhibited at the de Young Museum of Art (San Francisco, CA), Coulter Art Gallery (Stanford, CA), the Visual Arts Center in Austin (Austin, TX), Ox-bow School of Art (Saugatuck, MI), and 6th Street Studios and Art Center (Gilroy, CA) where she also served as the artist-in-residence. Lorena’s work has been featured in New American Paintings West Issue No. 174, Tlamatini (an independent Chicana publication), the Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, The American Scholar, and the Gilroy Dispatch. She has been awarded the Michael Frary Endowed Scholarship in Painting, the Ruth Ann Marmion Endowed Scholarship for the Visual Arts, the Carolyn Kay Davis Centennial Memorial Award, the Raina Gese Award in Painting, and the Chapell Lougee Grant.