Featured artist:

Naury Joaquin was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. From 1996-98, she attended the Altos de Chavon in Romana in the Dominican Republic, earning an Associate's degree in the program "2+2" working in conjunction with Parsons School of Design. In 1999, she attended the Pratt Institute earning a BFA in painting in 2001, and three years later, she completed her MFA at Pratt Institute with honors.  

Ms. Joaquin's artwork explores feminism, nostalgia and decadence set in a symbolic and allegorical scenario in which two worlds collide: the search for the past-a kind of incomplete mourning; and bittersweet longing in tandem with the question of transformation through the ever present passing time. This nostalgic surreal atmosphere present in her art work is led by a feminine principle-the Mother Goddess-which is surrounded by a disturbing and intriguing world in constant change and transformation. The infant-image appears always in regressive, and fragmentation and multiplication is part of the construction process in which mutilated arms and heads often appear. In these moments her work becomes layered with multifaceted echoes surrounded by a sinister romanticism; however, at other times, the mutation is prolific and new forms emerge: a doll's torso "gives birth to a second, the second, in turn, bears a third, in a constantly ongoing movement like The cycle of Ouroboros: The serpent that eats it's own tail.