Daniela Rivera "Returning Home" (2022). Photography and drawing on paper, 24 x 36 in. Framed.

Daniela Rivera "Returning Home" (2022). Photography and drawing on paper, 24 x 36 in. Framed.

I am a part and symptom of blurry cultural boundaries, performing on a stage of vernacular cannibalizations. I consider my responsibility to always challenge the construction of stereotypes or categories that discriminate, isolate and violently define the identities of others. I work as an artist with ideas of displacement, memory, and cultural migration to celebrate difference and reject categorization. I build, paint, and draw spaces that invite us to be vulnerable together, where I hope to celebrate difference and cultural exchange through shared authorship. I focus my attention on the migration of cultural objects, narratives, practices, and myths. I address episodes in political history, the history of art and personal history to generate open-ended conversations among viewer, artist and subject. The relation between these three players creates the work. I am invested in generating projects that leave space for the public to intervene, sharing in the construction of the meaning of the piece. I have found that surrendering authorship allows for responsible collaboration and active reflection.

Drawing as understanding, drawing as seeing, drawing as analysis and drawing as a mode of engagement is at the center of my practice. Lately I have been working on monumental scale material drawings that allow the public to participate in mark making, extending the active life of the drawing. - Daniela Rivera ‘21