Blanka Amezkua


Blanka Amezkua is a Mexican-American Latino inter-disciplinary contemporary artist. Collaboration, radical pedagogy, and community building are central to her art making and projects. Formally trained as a painter, her creative practice is greatly influenced and informed by folk art and popular culture, from papel picado to comic books.
WWW blankaamezkua.com

Early life

Amezkua was born in Mexico City and raised in Los Angeles, California. She earned a B.A. from California State University at Fresno, and she attended the Scuola Libera del Nudo of the Accademia di Belle Arti of Florence, Italy, between 1997 and 1998 and is formally trained as a painter.

Career

Amezkua is known for having initiated an artist-run space in her bedroom called the ' in 2008. In 2010, BBBP's two-year trajectory was included in the show "Alternative Histories" at Exit Art in New York City.
The space was also included in 2010, in the seminal book ', MIT Press.
From 2010 to 2016, she lived between New York City and Athens, Greece and began a project titled "'", an open invitation for artists from anywhere in the world to exhibit their work on three portable walls that she carried and placed throughout the city.
In 2012 she initiated ' an opportunity for artists in any field to craft an idea and present it in public space for twelve hours straight.
In the spring of 2014 she founded Fo Kia Nou 24/7, now . The space hosts exhibitions, workshops and projects inside an apartment in the center of Athens. Now, this artist-run space is under the direction of two artists, Mary Cox and Panagiotis Voulgaris, who took it over in the fall of 2016.
In 2016 Blanka initiated ' - acronym for her actual address; it is an artist-run space in the South Bronx crafting living room occurrences, face-to-face exchanges, meals, dialogue, workshops, residencies and art in the former home of the '.
Mentions of her work and projects can be found in various notable national and international publications and sites, such as: The New York Times, ''TimeOut NY, '', The Wall Street International, ,, , and many others.

Awards

Residencies

2022 Wave Hill Winter Workspace; Bronx, NY;  January – February
2021 Artist Research Fellowship of the Hispanic Society Museum & Library; New York, NY
2021 Bridging the Divide - an Artbridge Residency at Mitchel Houses; Bronx, NY
2020 Governors Island Residency with Bronx Art Space; New York, NY;   September - October
2020 ARC-Athens Virtual Resident; June
2019 AIM - The Block Gallery; Tribeca, NY;   January - June
2013 artAmari : Amari, Crete, Greece; May 1 - 20