Biography
Angelica Neyra is a Cuban sculptor born in Miami FL, 1999. She lives and works in Baltimore, MD attending the Rinehart School of Sculpture at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) as a Graduate Candidate for the expected date of May 2026. She received her BFA in 2022 from Florida State University (FSU) with an emphasis in ceramic sculpture. Being awarded the FSU Ceramic Excellence Award and Susan and Mark Messersmith Award upon graduation, Neyra maintained her standing at FSU as their BFA Artist in Resident. They also worked as a studio monitor in the FSU Ceramic lab while simultaneously teaching ceramic sculpture courses at the Art Center at Florida State University. Neyra is just beginning their artistic career and has had her work included in national publications, participated in numerous group exhibits including at the Museum of Fine Art, Pensacola Museum of Art, Gadsden Museum, as well as a solo show in the Museum of Florida History. Now attending MICA, Neyra works as an artist, student, and Graduate Teaching Assistant, assisting in the instruction of a Glaze Chemistry Workshop.
Through their work, Neyra aims to unveil the interconnected systems of oppression within the U.S. suffered by marginalized groups historically stemming from imperialistic ideologies, examining these systems of power and the complex relationships between the oppressed and their oppressors. Neyra crafts pieces that are radically grotesque yet hyper feminine and intimately beautiful; Instigating a visceral experience that exposes the intersectionality of trauma which transcends species.
Neyra recognizes the power language holds in domination and submission, she utilizes an updated dictionary to remove dissonance from non-human animals and human animals, emphasizing the universal kinship of life.
- To refer to all beings not human as non-human animals with proper pronouns to identify them with respect and dignity.
- The term wild will not be used to describe non-human animals in their intended environments, rather they are free.
- Abortion issues are health issues centered around people with uteruses, not solely women.
This in an ongoing list that will need to be updated with more time to come to more understandings, please feel free to offer suggestions.
Statement
My art aims to disturb the balance of the current mind-frame and prompt a rethinking of our positions on the planet and relationships with other beings. I specialize in crafting interdisciplinary sculptures that extend into wearables, installations, or performances, illuminating the intertwined oppression and violence faced by women and non-human animals. Drawing from Carol J. Adams’ “Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-Vegetarian Critical Theory,” I delve into contemporary society’s entrenched cultural misogyny and its fixation on meat and masculinity, further exploring the effects on Hispanic cultures of this harmful, hypermasculinity known as Machismo. By blurring the boundaries between human and animal, I confront viewers with the brutalities of corporate farming against all life forms, situating human bodies within the context of non-human animals.
My creations critically scrutinize power systems, employing a feminist perspective exploring the dynamics between the oppressed and their oppressors, examining how language – or its absence – perpetuates such systems and the inherent hypocrisies within. By deliberately choosing materials and methods that are labor-intensive, I am reliving the firsthand accounts of undervalued yet arduous immigrant labor in America, influenced by my Cuban heritage and sights of my family. I aim to highlight the erasure of laborers in a capitalist framework, as well as the undervaluation and dismissal of women’s labor in this biased societal structure.
Utilizing a spectrum of materials from ceramics to fibers, employing techniques like crocheting, beading, and hand-building, I create radically grotesque yet hauntingly beautiful pieces that aim to reveal the intersectional trauma shared by females across species. Drawing from my own encounters with mistreatment, over-sexualization, and fragmentation in a world that too often objectifies individuals like myself for consumption, I strive to evoke the sufferings experienced by non-human animals in contemporary factory farms. By emphasizing their haunting similarities, my work is a deliberate attempt to provoke emotional contemplation. It’s not merely a protest against the sexual politics of meat but also a call to revolutionize the capitalist, colonialist, anthropocentric world imposed upon us.