Maria Yolanda Liebana

Bio/CV: Maria Yolanda Liebana is a first-generation Latinx artist based in New York City. Her artistic practice is shaped by her liminal ethnic status, underground cultures, and conventional sexist attitudes toward kitsch.

Liebana holds a BFA in Art and Design Education from Pratt Institute and an MFA in Studio Art from Maine College of Art. She has exhibited at Kravets Wehby Gallery, Cambridge Art Association, Field Projects, Local Project Art Space, Trestle Contemporary Art Gallery, Ground Floor Gallery, and Helen Day Art Center. She was artist in residence at Vermont Studio Center in Vermont and Pickwick Independent Press in Portland, Maine. She is a 2018 and 2020 Queens Council on the Arts New Works Grant Artist recipient. Liebana was Kates-Ferri Projects May 2021 Artist in Residence.

Artist Statement: Her work addresses ideas of cultural interaction and interpretation, as well as the commonalities humans share in our relationship to nature and to each other. Inspired by materials as signifiers, she’s interested in how we acquire and share culture, and how world cultures now overlap and interact in ways previously inconceivable. 

With uncertainty looming in everything from our economies to our weather patterns, she’s concerned with the fragility of our civilization despite the universality of its cultural underpinnings. In her work she’s been looking at traditional artifacts and wondering what tangible relics we may leave for future generations and what they may say about who we were and how we lived.

Selected Solo Exhibitions:  2020 Devour, Departures Studio, Long Island City, NY 2018 ¿Tres Marias, Donde Esta Mi Felicidada?, Local Project Art Space, Long Island City, NY

Selected Group Exhibitions: 2022 Femme, curated by Michael Rangel, FLXST Contemporary, Chicago, IL,Vernacular Glamour, curated by Juan Omar Rodriguez, Cambridge Art Association, Cambridge, MA 2021 Maximum Self, curated by Yiyi Mendoza, Collarworks, Troy, NY, In Praise of Magic 2.0, curated by Sandra Lapage, Local Project Art Space, Long Island City, Queens, NY, In Praise of Magic,  curated by Sandra Lapage, Paradice Palase, Brooklyn, NY, Drool, curated by Emily Saltman, Kravets Wehby Gallery, NY, NY, CAMOUFLAGE: The Art of Invisibility, curated by Lisa Rockford, Bailey Contemporary Arts (BaCA), Pompano Beach, FL, Made in Queens, curated by Fatima Shabbar, King Manor Museum, Jamaica, Queens, NY 2020 Reclaimed, Reimagined, curated by David Rios Ferreira, Field Projects, NY, NY, A Place to Visit V.2, curated by Jip Gallery & Olimpia Gallery, online, Celestial Opera, Human Cathedrals, Curated by Paradice Palase & Guest Curator,    Lauren Wolchik, Online and catalog, FOOD SHOW, curated by Jeffrey Morabrito and Chantal Lee, SFA Projects, NY, NY, Winter Exhibition, Urban Studio Unbound, Yonkers, NY, Ride Through the Heart, AHA Fine Art, NY, NY 2019 Entre Espacios, curated by Susie Ximenez, Latinx Project, Kingston, NY, Cultural Cousins, curated by Jeanne Jalandoni, Chashama, NY NY, Every Woman Biennial, curated by Cristine Finley, La Mama Gallery, NY, NY, Latinx, curated by Cristina Ferrigno, La Bodega Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, Drink Me, Taste Me, Curated by Norma Homberg, Plaxall Gallery, Long Island CIty, NY 2018 Black Friday II, curated by Lobo Gallery and Paul Whiting, George Gallery, Bushwick, NY, WHERE WE'RE WEAR, Curated by The Art Institute of America, Portland, Maine, Midnight, Paradice Palace, Bushwick, NY, Allow Me to REintroduce Myself, Curated by Krista Scenna and Carolina Piñafiel, Cigar Factory, Queens, NY, Latinx, LIC Arts Open curated by Cristina Ferrigno, Long Island City, NY, Site Menagerie, Ruff Arts, Yonkers, NY 2017 Gifts by Artists, Ground Floor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, Craft Marketplace: Exhibition and Sale of the Handmade, Pelham Art Center, Pelham, NY, Botanical, Local Project, Long Island City, NY, Pandæmonium, curated by Seth Larson and Abigail Entsminger, Long Island City, NY, Ruff Arts, Yonkers, NY, Other Side of the Rainbow, ABD Gallery, Philadelphia, PA 2016 Square Foot, Aqua Art Miami, Miami, FL, Salon Show, LIC Arts Open, Long Island City, NY, +1, curated by Melissa Staiger, Trestle Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, Accumalating Experience, curated by Betty Jarvis, NAC Open Doors Festival, Newark, NJ, Space 776 Salon Show BOS 2016, Space 776, Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY, Social and Culture Lab, the Opening!, Alewife, Long Island City, NY, Rare Humdrum by Lady Art NYC, Idio Gallery, Bushwick, Brooklyn, NY, Hole History: Origins of American-Style Donuts, Asymmetrick Arts & Win Wilder Hall, Rockland, ME, The Alephs, Local Project Subterranean, curated by Carolina Montesinos, Long Island City, NY, The Food Show, Local Project, Long Island City, NY, Valentine Pop-UP 2016 Show, Arcilesli Homberg, New York, NY 2015 440 Small Works Show, 440 Gallery, curated by Amy Williams, Brooklyn, NY, Holiday Bazaar, Leslie Heller WorkSpace, curated by John Baber, New York, NY, Show #28, Field Projects, curated by Lauren Haynes, New York, NY, GIRL POWER, Hewn Art Center, Jersey City, NJ, "You've Got Mail," Ground Floor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, apARTment #2, Graft Art, curated by Melissa Beck, Brooklyn, NY, Last Dance @the Old Gem, Arts@Renaissance, Brooklyn, NY, Art Walk, The Art Factory, Paterson, NJ, Your Presence Is Requested, Resobox Gallery, curated by Maria Dimanshtein, Long Island City, NY, Recycle Show, BWAC, Redhook, Brooklyn, NY, Single, Local Project Gallery, curated by Maria Dimanshtein, Long Island City, NY 2014 Drawing Democracies, Stueben Gallery, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, NY 2013 MFA Thesis Show, Maine College of Art, Portland, ME, REvulsion, New Jersey City University, Jersey City, NJ, Best of the North East Masters of Fine Arts Exhibition, Helen Day Art Center, Stowe, VT 2012 Her Love Made Visible, ARTs East New York , Brooklyn, NY, Quadriatic Formula, La Luna Gallery, Washington, D.C., MFA Retrospective Show, Maine College of Art, Portland, ME, 1st Annual Gowanus Art Fair, Lowbrow Society of the Arts, Brooklyn, NY, Lunation: Art of the Moon, Observatory, Brooklyn, NY 2011 Salon Show, Greenpoint Gallery, Brooklyn, NY, La Loteria, Boderline Project, Brooklyn, NY, MFA Retrospective Show, Maine College of Art, Portland, ME

Awards: 2013 Vermont Studio Grant 2011 -2012 Merit Scholarship, Maine College of Art, Portland, ME, Field Projects Residency Finalist, New York, NY

Residencies: 2021 Kates-Ferri Projects, New York, NY 2017 Pickwick Independent Press, Portland, Maine2013 Vermont Studio Center, Vermont

Social: @yolabola