Artist Blanka Amezkua will lead a workshop to make your own papel picado, a traditional paper cutting technique from Mexico.

The strands of papel picado by Blanka Amezkua physically outline the entrance area and welcomes celebration into the gallery. Their decorative quality is intricate with imagery of the cities in which the artist has resided. In this way, as each papel picado waves in the space, it honors the migration that brought the artist and the viewers to this place.

Blanka Amezkua was formally trained as a painter, studying in Florence, Italy and received her B.A. from California State University Fresno.  Her work and projects have been shown in the United States, Mexico, Belgium and Greece at MoMA-P.S.1, Exit Art, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, El Museo del Barrio, Queens Museum of Art, Towson University, Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts in San Francisco, Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana (MACLA), Casa John Spencer, and The Taller Boricua, among others.

A recipient of the BRIO award from the Bronx Council on the Arts in 2007, Blanka began an artist-run project in her bedroom called the Bronx Blue Bedroom Project (BBBP) in 2008.  In 2010, BBBP’s two-year trajectory was included in several shows in New York City.  The first was Greater New York: 5 Year Review at MoMA-PS 1 and Alternative Histories at Exit Art.

During 2010-2016 she lived between New York and Athens, Greece and began 3///3 …three walls on wednesdays… as an open invitation for artists from any point of the globe to exhibit their work on three portable walls that she carried and placed throughout the city.

In 2012 she initiated 8 to 8: State of Creative Emergency an opportunity for artists and creative minds of any field, to craft and idea and present it in public space for twelve hours straight.

Fo Kia Nou 24/7 came to be in the spring of 2014: it is a creative and dynamic project space for the arts, music, workshops, food, dialogue, residencies, and gatherings in the heart of Athens.  She currently runs AAA3A, an artist run space in her apartment in Mott Haven, South Bronx.

Mentions of her work and projects are included in the New York Times, TimeOut, Daily News, Art21:blog, athinorama, Athens News, Queens Chronicle, International Museum of Women, WNYC, and other publications.

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