About this Installation
I am a Calgary-born multidisciplinary artist of Venezuelan descent, with Indigenous, European and African ancestry. My work explores cultural memory, diasporic identity and the experience of navigating multiple histories at once. Through art, I try to better understand the relationship between the cultures that shape me. This piece was hand-drawn digitally in Procreate and translated into an archival canvas print with a custom frame.
“Venus” Rising depicts a magical realist landscape at dawn. In the foreground stands the Venus de Milo, one of the most recognizable symbols of European art history, beside a stark white museum wall. In the distance, a monumental version of the “Venus” de Tacarigua — inspired by pre-colonial Indigenous Venezuelan ceramic figures — leaps across the hills, sending clouds of dust into the air. Above them, the planet Venus hangs in the sky, visually connecting the two forms.
The work reflects on how European systems of naming and categorizing have shaped global understandings of art and history. The Indigenous Venezuelan figure was historically interpreted through a European lens and labeled a “Venus,” despite emerging from a completely different cultural context.
In this painting, history is reversed. Rather than existing in the shadow of European art history, the “Venus” de Tacarigua becomes impossible to ignore and “haunts back,” challenging the idea that western traditions exist at the centre of global culture. At the same time, the work remains playful and celebratory, imagining a future where ancestral knowledge continues to evolve through contemporary and digital forms.
About the Mini Gallery Program
The Northeast Mini Galleries Public Art Program includes 10 mini galleries, located at different community associations. The mini galleries feature 30 artists throughout the year — each exhibition showcases 10 local artists, selected by a local curator, for a four-month period.
The Northeast Mini Galleries program started in 2023 as part of the City of Calgary’s Northeast Public Art Initiative which brings several public art projects to Calgary’s northeast communities, supports local artists, enhances northeast neighbourhoods and reflects the people who live in the communities where the art will be located.
This initiative aims to build amazing spaces for people to come together and provides opportunities for local artists to showcase their talent while celebrating the diversity of artforms, people and cultures represented in northeast Calgary.
Information about the current exhibition and artwork featured in this gallery can be found on Calgary Arts Development's website.