View works. Natalia Sánchez in her studio in Puerto Rico.
Natalia Sánchez in her studio in Puerto Rico.
View works
Artist Statement:
 
My work seeks to document and examine neglected moments found in Puerto Rico’s current urban landscape. I find these spaces, forms, and patterns reveal our collective psyche throughout Puerto Rico’s colonial history. I utilize perspective drawing, applying layers of lines, acrylic, aerosol, and vinyl, to create the illusion of space and invite viewers to interact from a particular point of view. These constructions exist between the realm of reality and imaginary; in a plane of constant ideation and timelessness. I create these paintings without a clear view of the outcome, responding and reacting to the composition, lines, textures, colors, and forms. I reference Puerto Rico’s typology of the constructed living space, The Home, when faced with destruction and abandonment. These peripheral sights of decay, caused by conditions of poverty, marginalization, hurricanes and natural disasters, property inheritance disputes, and bankruptcies, which all contribute to one of the largest emigrations to date, are patterns that repeat- beyond aesthetics and slip into our perceptions of self-worth. This fragmented reality implies levels of precariousness and layers of coexisting with a landscape collapsing on us. I reconfigure this as a reflection: We shape the landscape that shapes us, acknowledging the landscape as a mirror.
-
 

Natalia Sánchez was born in Bayamón, Puerto Rico in 1992. She received her BFA at Columbus College of Art and Design in 2015 and based in Columbus, OH for seven years. During this time, she had her studio at Blockfort Columbus, participated in organizing artistic and cultural events, exhibited in group shows, and grew a network of colleagues, patrons, and collectors.  After Hurricane Maria, she returned to Puerto Rico re-rooting herself in the town of Arecibo where she continues to develop her painting, multimedia, and community engagement practices. These expressions are influenced by architecture and urban planning in her immediate landscape and by the psychological implications of the built environment and the human psyche. 

 

Sánchez received the NALAC Fund for the Arts Grant in 2019 and with it developed an audiovisual documentary titled “País Espejo” about  Arecibo’s history focused on its urban planning or lack thereof.  It integrates the narratives of elders in the community, as well as historians and other community leaders. She had a solo show in Arecibo’s Casa Ulanga where together with a body of paintings showcased  “Pais Espejo” back to her community. In 2021 she exhibited in the group show “ A Diasporic State of Mind" at Praxis Gallery in Chelsea, New York. In 2022 she had a solo show at Kilometro 0.2 in San Juan, Puerto Rico.   Shortly after exhibiting in the Kilometro 0.2 group show “Once Upon a Time” In 2023. She was awarded the  MASS MoCA Fellowship for Artists from Puerto Rico, where she was a resident artist from August – September 2023.