ARTIST STATEMENT
As an interdisciplinary artist, I work across photography, video, and installation to explore storytelling, memory, and identity—particularly within Latino migrant communities. My practice challenges invisibility and centers the lived realities of those often excluded from dominant cultural narratives. Art, for me, is a space of resistance, reflection, and possibility. I view creative expression as both personal and political: a way to process experience, bear witness, and imagine more just futures. Through visual storytelling, I aim to amplify the voices of Latino migrant workers and examine how faith, migration, and identity intersect in complex and deeply human ways. Growing up in the Midwest, I formed lasting relationships with Latino migrant communities—connections that continue to shape my work in Minneapolis. These experiences revealed the nuanced role of religion, particularly Catholicism, in shaping identity. For many, faith is a source of resilience and belonging; at the same time, it can reflect internalized systems of control. This tension between devotion and liberation recurs throughout my work. Collaborations with organizations like CLUES (Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio) and HACER (Hispanic Advocacy and Community Empowerment through Research) ground my practice in collective experience. These partnerships offer valuable insight into the intersections of culture, belief, and systemic inequality, while reinforcing my commitment to social justice and cultural resistance. My work invites viewers to engage with layered questions of belonging, visibility, and power—holding space for empathy, critical reflection, and transformation.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
DeAnda is an interdisciplinary artist, filmmaker, and photographer whose work explores memory, identity, and migration within Latino communities. Born in Sioux City, Iowa in 2001, she developed an early interest in photography that has since evolved into a multifaceted, research-driven practice. Working across moving image, textile, and installation, she uses these mediums to investigate the layered intersections of faith, culture, migration, and personal identity. Currently based in Minneapolis, DeAnda draws ongoing inspiration from her relationships with Latino migrant communities across the Midwest. Her collaborations with local organizations—such as CLUES (Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio) and HACER (Hispanic Advocacy and Community Empowerment through Research)—deeply inform her approach to socially engaged artmaking. These partnerships not only ground her work in lived experience but also provide a framework for exploring how systems of power shape belonging and expression. Through her art, DeAnda seeks to amplify voices that are often silenced or overlooked, while creating space for reflection, dialogue, and transformation. Her work engages themes of resilience, spirituality, and cultural memory, offering viewers a lens into the complexity and beauty of marginalized lives.
© Graciela DeAnda