Lina Puerta
Lina Puerta
Workspace Program Resident 2016
Lina Puerta’s work examines the relationship between human and natural life, and the tensions that often arise between our natural environment and our constructed urban landscape. Her works blend aspects of the human world and the natural, observing the relationship between the two.
During her residency at Dieu Donné, Puerta worked closely with Studio Collaborator Amy Jacobs to create a series of five tapestries in addition to three-dimensional sculptures. Through experimental and controlled manipulation of the physical qualities of the pulp, the artist fully embraced the organic and spontaneous aspects of working in paper – while directly referencing and re-using certain patterns and imagery throughout her body of work.
Puerta incorporated numerous processes and techniques in these unique pieces, including freehand pulp painting using brushes and squeeze bottles, applying pulp paint through plastic stencils and lace, and layering blowouts using plastic, fabric and artificial plants, embedding and collage. She used a wide variety of found objects and recycled materials in all of her works including: micro beads, trims, sequined fabrics, mesh, faux fur, chains, lace, feathers, artificial plants, velvet ribbon, mesh, broken jewelry, netting, leather scraps and found insect wings and snakes from her home in Colombia. Many collage elements extended beyond the traditional rectangle or shaped sheet of paper, reaching from the edge and pushing through and out of the pulp. Cotton, translucent abaca and linen fibers were used in all works, which were colored through aqueous dispersed and raw pigments. Each of the pulp’s colors were mixed and matched according to color swatches examined before each studio day.
Puerta’s three-dimensional works were made using methyl cellulose glue which adhered cotton, linen and abaca pulp as well as molding plain, painted or patterned wet pressed sheets around wire baskets and shaped foam armatures. These smaller works incorporated embedded and collage elements of found objects in the same fashion as her two-dimensional works.
In the Studio
About the Artist
Lina Puerta (b. New Jersey, raised in Colombia) holds an MSEd in Art Education from Queens College/CUNY. She is currently the 2019/2020 Artist-in-Residency at the Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art and Storytelling in Harlem. She has also been honored with the 2017 NYFA Fellowship in Crafts/Sculpture, Fall 2017 Artist-in-Residency at the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans, the 2016 Dieu Donné Workspace Residency, Artprize-8 Sustainability Award, 2015 Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors Grant, 2015 Kohler Arts Industry Residency (WI), 2014-15 Keyholder Residency at the Lower East Side Printshop, 2013-14 Smack Mellon Art Studio Program, 2014 Materials for the Arts Artist Residency, 2013 Wave Hill Winter Workspace, and the 2010 Emerging Artist Fellowship at Socrates Sculpture Park in New York. The artist works and lives in New York City.
For more information, please visit their website: https://www.linapuerta.net/