Nica Aquino
  • Home
  • About
    • Bio
    • Full CV
    • Press >
      • Asian Voices TV, Ep. 10
      • Art & Cake Contemporary Art Magazine
      • University of Southern California Center for Religion and Civic Culture
      • Oregon Artswatch
      • Occidental News
      • Voyage LA
      • Corridor8
      • Portland Mercury
    • Connect >
      • Email
      • Newsletter >
        • Subscribe
        • Issue 11/08/22
      • Instagram
      • Tumblr
      • YouTube
  • Projects
    • Visual Art >
      • Exhibitions >
        • DISplace >
          • Online Exhibition
          • Oregon Artswatch: Artswatch Focus
        • Past >
          • 2021 >
            • Hair Pulling Between Good & Evil
            • Quiet Please at Tlaloc Studios
            • HATAK
            • I Remember 2020
            • Sanctuary of the Aftermath >
              • Exhibition
              • Review: Art & Cake Contemporary Art Magazine
          • 2020 >
            • Merkadito Pasko
            • Untold Parallels
            • Home at Acogedor Space for Maiden LA
            • Kentucky Fried Pop-Up for Maiden LA
          • 2019 >
            • Politically Private
            • Borders: Representation & Reality
          • 2018 >
            • Depaysement
            • Immigration 101
            • Images of Power >
              • Exhiibtion Catalogue
              • Press
          • 2017 >
            • Honoring Our Ancestors
          • 2016 >
            • Reply All >
              • Exhibition
              • Press
            • Territorial Anxiety
          • 2013 >
            • Resistance
      • Photographic Series >
        • The Mayor's Daughter
        • Memory Full
        • How I Survived Breaking Both My Legs
        • Mana
        • Sixteen Again
        • Keep Portland White
        • Misc. Photography
        • Coming Soon >
          • Nobody Walks in LA
          • A Year in the Coloniser's Land
      • Other Media >
        • Memory Room >
          • Exhibition
          • Artist Talk: Dinner in the Memory Room
        • Video >
          • Instructional Video for the Warrior Goddess
          • #I_ATE_THE_BONES
          • Isolation 2020 - Balamb
          • Danum (Water) #1
          • Supertubos Beach
          • Lucid Dreaming
          • Celebrate Movement
          • Keep Portland White
        • Textiles >
          • Kusikus Textile Series (ongoing)
          • Untitled Wall Hanging
        • Misc. Mixed Media
    • Programming >
      • Curatorial >
        • 2022 >
          • HATAK 2022
          • KAPWA: Communal Spirit
          • FOR GOOD?
        • 2021 >
          • HATAK (2021)
          • I Remember 2020
        • 2020 >
          • Merkadito Pasko
          • Tuloy Po Kayo
          • Untold Parallels
          • Quality Time
        • 2019 >
          • We Are Like Air
          • anotherspace >
            • Exhibition
            • Eye of the Fish: Gunita Collective x Batik Maker
            • Lola's Sari-Sari Store
          • Araw Ng Mga Patay >
            • Exhibition
            • Artist Led Walkthrough
            • PRESS: Occidental Newspaper
            • PRESS: University of Southern California Center for Religion and Civic Culture
        • 2018 >
          • Balay/Bahay >
            • Exhibition
            • Opening Reception Performances >
              • Alay
              • Gong Spirits
              • Native Spirit
              • Dance Cypher
      • Community Engagement >
        • 2020 >
          • Oxy Arts Community Studio Series with Nica Aquino (Occidental College)
          • Family Paint Night w/ FilAm Fam (POSTPONED)
          • Paper Making w/ John DeCastro
        • 2019 >
          • Parol Workshop w/ Christian Acfalle
          • Current LA:FOOD
          • Balikbayan Box w/ Sara Chao >
            • Workshop
            • Press
          • How to Make a Rainbow w/ Jade Phoenix
          • Lumpihahaha
      • Lectures, Artist Talks >
        • 2021 >
          • Healing Centered Art: Many Paths to Wellness | Wed, May 26, 2021 | 630-8PM (PST)
          • DISCOVER 10: 10 API Artists at the Cutting Edge of Art
        • 2020 >
          • Artist Talk w/ Silvia M. De Leon
          • Artist Talk w/ Dearantler
          • Artist Talk w/ Em Hernandez
          • Artist Talk w/ Mike Saijo
        • 2019 >
          • 'Araw Ng Mga Patay' Artist Led Walkthrough
          • Dinner in the 'Memory Room'
          • Artist Panel PSU Dept. of Philosophy
        • 2018 >
          • 24th Adelante Mujer Latina
      • Shady Pines Radio >
        • Past (playlist links here) >
          • 12.16.21: "Angels with Filthy Souls" on Shady Pines Radio
          • 10.28.21 - "Songs to Listen to Before a Cult S*icide"
    • Publications >
      • 2019 Filipino-American Artist Directory
      • 2017 {M}aganda Magazine
    • Performances >
      • 2015 Merrie Monarch Ho'ike
      • 2015 Aratani Theater
  • Mata Art Gallery
  • Donate
    • Venmo
    • PayPal
    • Cash.App
    • Zelle: nica.u.aquino@gmail.com
Picture
Nica Aquino (b. 1990, Los Angeles) is a practicing visual artist and curator. She received her BFA in Photo from the Pacific Northwest College of Art (Portland, OR) and her MA in Contemporary Visual Culture from the School of Art at Manchester Metropolitan University (United Kingdom). Her work has been shown locally, nationally and internationally, and she has been awarded grants by the California Arts Council and Eastside Arts Initiative for her curatorial and community engagement programming.

In her artwork, she primarily experiments with 35mm analogue photography, just documenting life as she sees it. No fancy bells and whistles, no manipulations, just a cheap point and shoot camera (the exact same model from her childhood), cheap film and what's in front of her at the time. She believes art making should be accessible, and that you don't always need the newest fanciest toys to create something meaningful.

She also experiments with textiles, video and sound to create interactive, intimate and very personal installations that often reference memory, nostalgia, and different tiers of loss ranging from death, historical amnesia to post-colonial melancholia. This work is often rooted in her experience as a diasporic Ilokana ("Filipina").

Aside from spending her early adolescence moving between states & continents, Nica grew up within immigrant, working class inner-city neighborhoods on the cusps of Koreatown, Pico-Union & Mid-City, Los Angeles. She is now residing in the Northeast LA community, where she works as an artist & independent curator, & has a full-time day job working in public art. In her curatorial practice, Nica aims to provide a platform for artists of color and others navigating feelings of unbelonging. As an individual that has had the opportunity to get educated and access many resources, she knows it is her responsibility as an artist and curator to use her privilege to uplift others also existing within the margins, and lend visibility to the communities and stories experiencing erasure.

Check out her alternative gallery project: mataartgallery.org


Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.