Arleene Correa Valencia
Arleene Correa Valencia is an artist known for multiple solo and group exhibitions based on emotional impacts of migrations through the perspective of family separation, identity, and visual representation on families migrating for a better life. Correa Valencia is known for her artworks based on embroidery, textiles, and clothing to further tell the stories of immigration, invisibility, and family separation.
Education and early life
Arleene Correa Valencia was born in Michoacán, Mexico, and later immigrated to Napa Valley, California, at the age of three.In 2015-2018, Correa Valencia received her Bachelors of Fine Art. In the year 2017, she also participated in a residency program at ACAID New York Studio Residency Program. In 2020, she received her Master of Fine Arts at California College of the Arts, located in San Francisco.
She benefits from DACA, otherwise known as Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals, and her background as an undocumented immigrant, which strongly impacts her artwork we see now.
In 2018, Correa Valencia publicly opened up about her personal health journey after she and her brother learned they had the BRCA1 genetic mutation, which greatly raises the risk of breast cancer. Before her own diagnosis, she lost her aunt Asor to breast cancer at an early age, which led her family to get a genetic testing. During her years of completing her Bachelor of Fine Arts, she began noticing physical symptoms that led her to get extensive medical examinations. After consulting with medical professionals, Correa Valencia chose to undergo a double mastectomy with reconstruction using her own tissue. Her reconstructive surgery took place in March 2019. Correa Valencia explains she didn't just want to share her story for herself, but instead, wanted to help others dealing with genetic cancer risk, early detection, or mastectomy.
Selected works
In 2021, at the Trout Museum of Art in Appleton, Wisconsin, Correa Valencia presented her solo show Llévame Contigo, Yo Quiero Estar Contigo/ Take Me With You, I Want To Be With You. She presented an art installation, "Truth Farm," near Trump Winery to create conversations about the border.In 2024 she exhibited Llevanos Contigo/ Take Us With You, at the Bolinas Museum in California, to shed some light on family separation caused by immigration policies.
Through 2024-2025 Correa Valencia opened an exhibition at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts, titled El Rancho/ The Ranch, La Guardia/The Guard, La Bestia/The Beast, and El Arbol/The Tree, to showcase her experience as an undocumented migrant and how that shaped her identity. Using different mediums and materials, Correa Valencia has created pieces like Pãpalõtl: Soñadores En Búsqueda de Amor/ Pãpalõtl: Dreams In Search of Love and A Donde Vamos?/Where Are We Going? that express the feelings she had as a young child migrating. Along with Hijos del Sol/Children of the Sun, which is a tribute to who her father, the focal point to most of her artworks.