Artist Statement
As a woman of Ecuadorian and Jewish-American ancestry, I was raised traveling back and forth from the US and Ecuador. My grandmother lived with us; she spoke no English. My father never learned Spanish. These experiences have led me to focus on personal narratives in my art practice as an entry point to navigate broader questions of place, identity and nationhood.
I tell stories through images, static and moving, often using performance to ground them. My influences represent a broad swath of interests that include abstraction, politics, humor, feminism and history. My multiple ethnicities have propelled me to explore narratives of the African diaspora; the complexities of indigeneity; and the legacies of colonialism. By calling into question how we understand history and the elusive nature of truth, my work examines the subjectivity of both. But it’s not that simple; I believe in truth, even while the post-truth world in which social media sites provide a platform for misinformation has led to factual relativity. While I cannot counter the plethora of misinformation circulating the internet, I can reveal my own processes and draw attention to the labor that is often invisible from those in peripheral communities.
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 Ecuadorian 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-Columbian 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 Ecuadorian women from the Sisi community 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 whose practice began in photography and grew into video and performance. 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. She has exhibited Sacred Geometry in solo exhibitions at Museo Amparo in Puebla, Mexico and Ponce + Robles Gallery in Madrid, Spain. 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: 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.