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 independent curator, & has a day job working full-time in communications for an art & design department of a city agency. 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
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 independent curator, & has a day job working full-time in communications for an art & design department of a city agency. 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
