Carolina Cuevas

Instagram: @carolinac16

Website: http://carolinacuevas.com

Bio: Carolina Cuevas (b. 1998) is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, and educator based in the Bay Area. She received her MFA from the California College of the Arts and her BFA from the Kansas City Art Institute. Her practice is rooted in the history of altar-making and the intricacies of language, primarily within American and Caribbean society. Both evolving and adapting to their surroundings, altars, and language are vital sources of inspiration to discuss the joining of community, creating rituals, and oral traditions. Cuevas combines materials, such as textiles and clay, with found or foraged materials to depict these ideas. Her work has been included in exhibitions at Minnesota Street Project, Berkeley Art Center, the Institute of Contemporary Art San Francisco, San Jose’s Quilts and Textile Museum, International Ceramics Studio in Kecskemét, Hungary, and Kansas City Artist Coalition. She is the recipient of several awards, including the Barclay Simpson Award, Cadogan Contemporary Art Award, Cultura Power Fellowship, and the Knight Foundation. She has her work in the permanent collection of San Jose’s Quilts and Textiles.

Statement: Hand to fabric, hand to clay, a hand to alter/altar. The work I create is about the meeting of the body and material. My practice explores ideas surrounding the history of altar-making and the intricacies of language. Both always evolving and adapting to their surroundings, altars and language are vital sources of inspiration for me to discuss the joining of community, creating rituals, and oral traditions. I’m interested in combining materials, such as textiles and clay with found or foraged materials to create and discuss the body, altars, and language. My work focuses heavily on traditional craft processes such as backstrap weaving, basket weaving, natural dyeing, hand building in clay, and candle making. I use these processes to challenge the idea of altars and craft practices in contemporary spaces.