“Articulating the depth of beauty and care one can experience in this world - through art, with community, and in contributing positively to society - is what I focus on creating in this life.”
Education & Professional Development
The EU Break Fellowship for Entrepreneurship 2024, MFA Art Center College of Design 2016, BFA Cal State Fullerton 2008, OCC School of Photography 2006
ArtIST-CURATOR
Art is magic, art is power, art creates space and language for that which lacks representation through conventional constructs.
My name is Andrea and I use art as a channel to advocate for humanity.
Growing up as a Mexican-Austrian American, I have built my life as an artist and single mother through a spectrum of adversity, hope, and determination.
Cultivating resilience, intuition, integrity, and optimism - I proactively assemble a tender language of art that creates space for human nature to be held, seen, heard.
I transform systemic challenges into regenerative processes, which in turn produces the language of art I use to speak to and with the world.
The best part of artmaking is trying things and having them not work. It forces me to develop a new perspective and alter my technical approach. This process facilitates learning, awareness, and sensitivity in ways I cannot live without. It guides me in bringing a work to life and I welcome this challenge with the greatest appreciation.
I am deeply moved by captivating and dismantling experiences of beauty, truth, and connection. These encounters function as access points for a kind of internal freedom.
One that I integrate in order to evolve in this place we call earth, which please don’t forget is a place made possible by stars, sun, and moon, and through fire, water, wind, seeds, and soil.
It is this possibility of interior freedom that I strive to create and share with the world.
In speaking this very special language called art, my work takes form through interdisciplinary mediums, including experiential works, installation, large-scale video projection, performance, collaborative works, sculpture, and photography.
PERSONAL HISTORY
Invested in developing cultural ecosystems for the greater good of humanity, my work is highly intentional and politically driven by my personal and social history.
Born to a Mexican mother and Austrian father, I was raised in a multicultural household within the California landscape, where as an adult I received a Bachelor’s and Master's degree in Fine Arts.
Growing up, my mother was often subjected to racism, and as her children, we were raised culturally Mexican but viewed as white because we were mixed and had lighter skin. On many occasions, people assumed she was our “nanny” and was called racial slurs by neighbors or while traveling throughout the states. (My Mexican and Austrian grandparents pictured above).
When we spent time at my mother’s childhood home in the Mexican neighborhood Boyle Heights in Los Angeles, people would stop and stare at us, curious about what we were doing there. Slang words to describe my siblings and me as white Mexicans were used frequently by family and strangers.
With my father, we weren’t identified as his children either, he had blonde hair, blue eyes, and a thick accent, and we were light brown all around speaking with a mixed American accent. Sometimes I thought perhaps I was adopted. (My daughter and niece above in traditional Mexican Ballet Folklorico costumes for a cultural dance performance).
COMMUNITY WORK
It brings me great joy to break down institutional barriers and build opportunities for current and future generations.
Passionate about advancing a culturally equitable future, I have focused on creating visibility for artist minority groups, working with over 100 artists spanning 25 nationalities within the US and Europe.
Through the development of exhibitions, performances, and arts experiences, it is deeply meaningful for me to support fellow artists and make art accessible to broader socioeconomic groups. (View a selection of works here).
My work supports people of color, mixed race, immigrants, indigenous peoples, descendants of immigrants or indigenous peoples, economically exploited groups, female-identifying, LGBTQ+, and disabled peoples.
Get in touch to collaborate on a project here, I am happy to develop, advise, or share my knowledge of the arts - let’s change the future together!
ARTS PROFESSION
Supporting my cultural philosophy and community initiatives, I have 15 years of experience as an arts professional in collection building and arts management.
I am extremely grateful for a compelling and enriching adventure working with collectors, philanthropists, museums, artists, galleries, publishers, and auction houses.
Working between New York, Los Angeles and Europe, my scope of work has encompassed invigorating, life-changing experiences - constantly challenging me to evolve my understanding of art.
I am most proud of supporting philanthropic gifting initiatives to MoMA New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art New York, LACMA Los Angeles, the J. Paul Getty Museum Los Angeles, the Art Institute of Chicago, and the National Gallery of Art Washington D.C.