Sonia Guiñansaca (<)
Rommy Torrico (>)
Rommy Torrico
A formerly undocumented, queer, trans nonbinary visual artist born in Iquique, Chile, and raised in Florida. They have been involved in social movement spaces encompassing (im)migrant, queer, and trans rights struggles for over a decade. They infuse much of their work with personal experience and the stories their communities share. Over the years, Torrico’s work has been included in several publications and exhibited at the Getty Museum, the Smithsonian Museum, the Library of Congress, and the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, as well as many galleries and museums throughout the Americas and internationally.
Pronouns: They/Them/Theirs
Sonia Guiñansaca
An international award-winning queer migrant poet, cultural organizer, and social justice activist. They emerged as a national leader in the migrant artistic and political communities, where they coordinated and participated in groundbreaking civil disobedience actions. Guiñansaca helped build some of the largest undocumented organizations in the US, including co-founding some of the first artistic projects by and for undocumented writers and artists. Sonia has worked for over a decade in both policy and cultural efforts building equitable infrastructures for migrant artists. They have been awarded residencies and fellowships from Voices of Our Nation Arts Foundation, Poetry Foundation, British Council, Creative Time, and the Hemispheric Institute for Performance & Politics. Guiñansaca has performed at the Met, the NYC Public Theater, and Lehmann Maupin Gallery and has been featured on PEN American, Interview Magazine, Ms.Magazine, Teen Vogue, Diva Magazine UK, CNN, NBC, and PBS, to name a few. Their migration and cultural equity work has also taken them to London and Mexico City to advise on migrant policy and arts programming. Consults for national social justice organizations, cultural institutions, and foundations on artists convening, cultural activations, and civic engagement. Past clients include Fwd.us, Robert W. Deutsch Foundation, and The Rasmuson Foundation.
Sonia self-published their debut mini chapbook Nostalgia and Borders in 2016. They are a contributor to the new edition of ColonizeThis! Anthology (2019 Seal Press), a contributor to Migrant Feelings, Migrant Knowledge Building a Community Archive (2022 University of Texas Press), featured on Stop Telling Women to Smile (2020 Seal Press), What Things Cost: An Anthology for the People (2023 The University Press of Kentucky). In April 2022, launched House of Alegría a multi-fold creative project supporting emerging undocumented Queer/Trans/Non-binary artists. Guiñansaca is releasing their second chapbook, #PapiFemme, later in the year. Now, represented by Johanna Castillo at Writers House Agency, Sonia is also working on their first memoir, and recently co-edited the highly anticipated anthology “SomeWhere We Are Human” (HarperCollins June 2022).
SoniaGuinansaca.com IG/Twitter @thesoniag
The following artists have been selected for an exhibition to coincide with the artist residency.