Sandra de la Rosa is an artist from (b. 1991) San Luis Potosi, Mexico. She earned her Masters of Fine Arts in 2019 at the University of Florida and her Bachelor of Fine Arts at the University of Houston in 2015. She is the current President of BOX 13 ArtSpace, an arts organization that promotes the advancement and creation of experimental art in Houston. Sandra has exhibited her work across Texas and nationally in shows that emphasize the visibility of artists of color, immigration, and border issues. Her work focuses on issues that undocumented immigrants and DACA recipients face. Sandra is a former DACA recipient.
Borders permeate geography and people, they are capable of dividing an individual's own identity. As a Mexican immigrant, I experience a liminal space where I feel confined and exposed simultaneously. This liminal experience manifests from the ambiguity and uncertainty of living in the United States as someone with a hybridized identity: Mexican, American, Texan, brown, other. I depict abstracted landscapes and structures that put the viewer in an uncomfortable point of view, they are neither inside or outside, they are located in a state of limbo
In addition to my exploration of borders and the immigrant experience, I explore light as a symbol for hope in my artistic practice. The landscapes and structures I depict not only embody the physical manifestations of borders but also carry the weight of complex emotions involved in immigration. I draw upon the recollections of my own journey—from the moments of uncertainty as an undocumented immigrant to the transformative period under DACA—and infuse them into the layers of my work and I seek to evoke empathy for those that call the US home but are forced to live in the shadows.- Sandra
