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Helena La Rota López

Visual and Performing Artist

“My research stems from the body: as architectural construction in anatomy; as symbol in folklore and mythology; as the bearer of our ancestors’ history and as vessel when storytelling; but mostly as a sensorial portal linking our minds to the world and to those around us.

I question the social definitions that trap our bodies into states of otherness and deny us the right to occupy space, while also being curious about the rituals we engage in to occupy or reclaim it.” 

Helena La Rota López is a multidisciplinary artist based in Ridgewood, NY. Born and raised in Bogotá, Colombia, she emigrated to study Liberal Arts at Sarah Lawrence College (BA 2016), then Painting and Anatomy at the New York Academy of Art (MFA 2019), and printmaking at the Art Students League (2020-22). Currently, she teaches at Montclair State University, NJ.

Recent activity (2023-2024):

Artist in residence and Thomas Wood Grant recipient at Il Bisonte Studio & Foundation in Florence, Italy; Cuttyhunk Island Artist Residency in Massachussets and Woodward Guest Residency in New York, USA.
Work exhibited in the US and Italy, including the NADA Art Fair in Miami with Paradice Palase, the Institute of Classical Architecture and Art National Conference, and the Collar Works Flat Files.

“The pelvis supports our entrails with its delicate system of arches, and is the portal of birth into the terrestrial world: it is an inverted cathedral.”
sand texture

“One’s body is the most convenient and habitual model. Its reflection accompanies us in solitude and evidences our biography with physical marks.”

“This is not a monologue: it’s a conversation. The real meaning of each installation comes from the way the audience interacts with it and its creature, the feelings and conversations that those interactions cause, and them being remembered like the memory of a dream.”

“My work is a tightrope walk between clinical and romantic. I fuse the languages of multiple disciplines into an organic web of fine arts and performing arts techniques.”