Tú No Tienes Alma (2025) functions as an interlude within my practice. The series occupies a state of suspension—conceptually unresolved and intentionally open-ended. It reflects a period of internal questioning rather than resolution.

Works such as Llorando las Lágrimas and Mujer Sin Corazón document an ongoing effort to establish a satisfying relationship with oil paint. Working at a smaller scale reintroduced a sense of intimacy that had been diminished in previous bodies of work, allowing for a slower and more tactile engagement with the surface.

Negra and Negro signal a more explicit integration of historical research into my practice. These works draw from diagrams of transatlantic slave ships, visual documents that embody systems of measurement, control, and dehumanization. Through these references, I confront my own ancestry, acknowledging African origins shaped by European colonization and Caribbean displacement.

Material restraint is central to these works. By limiting materials and embracing minimalism, I employ restriction as a conceptual strategy—one that mirrors the conditions represented in the source imagery. These pieces do not seek narrative closure but instead operate as acts of acknowledgment and historical reckoning.

Resources:

Elijah Muhammad, The Fall of America, 1973

Malcolm X and Alex Haley, The Autobiography of Malcolm X, 1965

Addio Zio Tom (1971), directed by Gualtiero Jacopetti and Franco Prosperi

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