Artist Statement
Like many immigrants in search of a better life, my mother migrated from Ecuador to the US in the 1960s. My Ecuadorean grandmother soon followed and helped raise me. I grew up going back and forth between Guayaquil (EC) and Washington DC (US). My art practice is driven in part by the on-going visits to my mother’s homeland throughout my childhood. I work across disciplines integrating various media that embrace abstraction and materiality. My projects rely on research based practices that include traditional methods (combing archives), oral histories (I interview lots of people) and critical fabulation (I fill in the gaps that history leaves out).
Recent works include The Perilous Journey of Maria Rosa Palacios and The Railroad Workers, where I bring attention to Palacios, a domestic laborer, and the Railroad workers (of the Ecuadorean railroad) whose station in life made it impossible for them to be remembered in the history books. In How to Build a Wall and Other Ruins I interview engineers, archaeologists and historians of the Pre-Colombian world about their theories of how Inkans built Ingapirca, an archeological site in Ecuador that uses the same building techniques the Inkans used to construct Machu Picchu. The interviews are juxtaposed with a video-performance in which a brigade of Ecuadorean women activate the experts’ divergent theories by building a replica of Ingapirca using recycled materials.
Bio
Karina Aguilera Skvirsky (b. Providence, RI) is a multidisciplinary artist. In 2019, she received a grant from Creative Capital to produce Sacred Geometry, a series of hand-cut photographic collages and How to build a wall and other ruins, a project that includes a multi-channel video installation and live performances. Recent exhibitions include: Hors Pistes at Centre Pompidou [Malaga, SP], Jugar con los ojos cerrados; Cien Años de Surrealismo at RGR (CDMX) and Re-Collections at the LatinX Project (NYC). How to Build a Wall and Other Ruins premiered at the XVth Cuenca Biennial, curated by Blanca de la Torre in December 2021. Other important international exhibitions include her participation in Impermanence, the XIII Cuenca Biennial (Ecuador) curated by Dan Cameron in 2016 and There is always a cup of sea for man to sail, the 29th São Paulo Biennial in Brazil (2010).
Skvirsky's work has been exhibited internationally in group and solo shows including: Museo de la Ciudad, Cuenca, EC (2021), Photoville, The Clemente, NY NY (2021), Museo Amparo, Puebla, MX (2019), Centro de la imagen, CDMX (2018), Centro de arte contemporaneo Quito, EC (2018), The Deutsche Bank, NY, NY (2018), Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY (2017), Ponce + Robles Gallery, Madrid, SP (2017), The Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA (2016), Hansel & Gretel Picture Garden Pocket Utopia, NY, NY (2014) and others.
She has received grants from: New York State Council of the Arts (2023), Rema Hort Mann (2023), Anonymous Was A Woman (2019), Creative Capital (2019), Lower Manhattan Cultural Council Creative Engagement (2019), New York Foundation for the Arts (2019), The National Association of Latino Arts & Culture (NALAC, (2018), Fulbright Scholar Program (2015), The Jerome Foundation (2015), The New Jersey State Council in the Arts in photography (2015), The New York State Council on the Arts, Film and Electronic Arts, NY (2010), Urban Artist Initiative, NY, NY (2006), Puffin Foundation, Teaneck, NJ (2006) and others.
She has participated in the following artist in residence programs including: Sacatar Artist Residency Itaparica, BR (2024), Fountainhead Residency, Miami, FL (2023), Office Hours, El museo del barrio, NY, NY (2015), The Laundromat Project, NY, NY (2011), MacDowell Artist in Residence Program, Peterborough, NH (2005 & 2010), Cuts and Burns Residency, Outpost, Artist in Residence Program, Brooklyn, NY (2008), Harvestworks New Work Residency, NY, NY (2006), Swing Space, Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, NY, NY (2005), Institute of Electronic Arts Residency, Alfred University, Alfred, NY (2005), Center for Book Arts, Artist in Residence, NY, NY (2005), Smack Mellon Artist in Residence, Brooklyn, NY (2004), Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, Workspace, Woolworth Building, NY, NY (2003), Cyberart Residency, Longwood Arts Project, Bronx, NY (2003) and others.