Bio 

Rachel de Cuba is an interdisciplinary artist raised in Sebastian, FL. She received her BFA in Studio Art at Flagler College in 2013 and her MFA in Digital Art at Indiana University in 2019. She received recognition for her thesis work with Grant awards from Indiana University. In 2019 she was invited to create new media artworks for the New Orleans Film Festival with support from the Andy Warhol Foundation. de Cuba’s work has been shown nationwide and was recently selected to exhibit her work in southXeast: contemporary art triennial at Florida Atlantic University in 2023. Her mixed media work has also been selected for publication in New American Paintings Southern 2022 Edition. Most recently, her work she has been selected for Skyway 2024: A Contemporary Collaboration with an invitation to exhibit at The John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art in Sarasota, Florida. Rachel de Cuba is currently an Assistant Professor of Visual Arts at Eckerd College in St. Petersburg, Florida. 

Artist Statement

The work I am creating looks at structures’ interwoven role in politics and citizenship in the Americas. Focusing on the mimicry of the architecture of a house in connection to the structure of borders and democratic apparatuses I question the seduction of the American home. Focusing on familial narratives of migration the works within my practice build upon the blended structure of an upbringing as a child of immigrants. Mesmerizing movements of multimedia apparatuses such as video and sound begin to open portals for viewers to engage with the heartache and uncertainty of oral histories in the power structure of the United States of America. While the digital materials look to surrealist approaches of storytelling, the physical materials explore the abstractions of narratives within a family heritage. My current studio practice marries craft and digital media to produce experiences in which viewers can engage in a series of questions while sitting in a tender space of vulnerability.

 If a structure is a tool of dividing the private and the public then how does one account for the political? At what point does the personal become political in the context of home? Can a quilt protest? Can a house stand as a rallying cry? What does it mean when an object holds more power than a person from beyond a border wall? Can a wall divide a space as well as a landmass as well as a continent? When does the wall become a border?

 Click here to download current CV.