Artist Statement

​

My practice operates at the intersection of art and the built environment, merging spatial thinking with visual narrative to examine how cities are shaped; and who they are shaped for.

​

Trained in architecture and developed through studio practice, my work reflects an ongoing investigation into the impact of urban development on historically underserved communities. Where architecture often prioritizes growth and expansion, my work considers the social and cultural consequences of those decisions; particularly within Black and Brown communities.

​

Through drawing, painting, and mixed media, I construct layered urban environments populated by figures that exist in a state of transition. These figures; both individual and collective; are central to the work, representing communities navigating displacement, inequity, and systemic pressures tied to gentrification, housing instability, and economic exclusion.

​

Visually, the work draws from the language of architectural representation. Figures echo the abstraction of the built environment; high-rise buildings, cranes, and fragmented domestic structures; collapsing distinctions between body and space. In this way, individuals become embedded within the very systems that shape their lived experience.

​

Color functions as both aesthetic and code. The use of red, yellow, and blue references the visual logic of mid-20th-century redlining maps, where color was used to designate value, access, and exclusion. Within the work, these colors operate as markers of spatial inequity, embedded within the urban landscape.

 

This practice serves as a platform to examine the ongoing realities of development and displacement, while creating space for reflection and dialogue. The work does not offer resolution, but instead holds tension; between growth and erasure, visibility and invisibility, presence and absence.