Lina Puerta was born in New Jersey and raised in Colombia. She holds an MS in Art Education from Queens College of CUNY and has been recipient of the 2013 Wave Hill Winter Workspace Residency, 2010 Emerging Artist Fellowship from Socrates Sculpture Park and the Urban Artists Initiative NYC Grant (2009-2010). Exhibition venues include: Washington Project for the Arts,Washington DC; El Museo del Barrio, Lehman College Gallery, Socrates Sculpture Park, NYC; Hampden Gallery at UMASS and Opalka Gallery at The Sage Colleges. Her work has been featured in several publications including Wilder Quarterly, Public Art & Ecology (China), Sculpture Magazine and The New York Times. Her work will be included in upcoming 2014 group exhibitions at MOBIA and Wave Hill in New York and she will be the 2014-Fall artist in Residence at NYC Material for the Arts.

My work is an ongoing exploration of the interior and exterior of the human body from a non-scientific point of view. I observe the body as a natural system, landscape, or small universe, while searching out the sublime and its magical mystery. I create hybrid anatomical and botanical forms that point at the interconnectedness between nature and body.

During my residency at Smack Mellon, I have developed a series of works that explore the natural processes of life and death; wearing and decay -and how they manifest in the body through aging.