Lorena Cruz Santiago is an artist working across photography, video, and installation informed and inspired by her family’s indigenous origins in Oaxaca, Mexico. Her work covers topics of migration, assimilation, labor, and more recently, collaborative image-making with her parents as a form of indigenous autonomy. Cruz Santiago holds a BFA in Photography from Sonoma State University (2016) and an MFA in Photography from Cranbrook Academy of Art (2019). She has been an artist-in-residence at ACRE (Steuben, WI), Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency (Saugatuck, MI), Pocoapoco Residency (Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, MX), Oak Spring Garden and Foundation Residency (Upperville, VA), Darkroom Detroit (Detroit, MI) and Chalk Hill Residency (Healdsburg, CA). Her work has been included in shows at El Comalito Collective (Vallejo, CA), Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts (Grand Rapids, MI), Cranbrook Art Museum (Bloomfield Hills, MI), and with ACRE Projects in Chicago, IL. She is currently based in Detroit, MI.
Contact: lorenacruzart@gmail.com
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EDUCATION
2019 MFA, Photography, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI
2016 BFA, Photography, Sonoma State University, Rohnert Park, CA
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2023
Spiraling towards the sun for me and you, Classroom Gallery, Cedar, MI
2021
Entre el maiz, los chiles, y las flores, ACRE Projects, Chicago, IL
Tejidos, Das Schaufenster, Seattle, WA
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2024
If You’ve Never Been To Heaven, How Will You Know You’re In Hell?, 934 Gallery, Columbus, Ohio
Oak Spring: A Place to Grow, Oak Spring Garden Foundation, Upperville, VA
One More Night, Heiress Gallery, St Petersburg, FL
2023
Eramos Semillas, Stove Works, Chattanooga, TN
Under The Surface, Gallery Camille, Detroit, MI
Las flores no se marchitan cuando siguen tu voz, The Brown Archive, Los Angeles, CA
2022
Homebody, Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI
Diasporic Dysplasia, Bronx River Art Center, Bronx, NY
2021
P.A.D. Retrospective, Walter Elwood Contemporary, Amsterdam, NY
In Balance, Heron Arts, San Francisco, CA
This Is(n’t) For You, Interloper, Seattle, WA
2020
Belief Systems, P.A.D. Gallery, New York, NY
What’s Another Word for Survival?, Sin Cinta Previa + Chuquimarqa Projects, Chicago, IL (Film Screening)
ArtWork, Art Mile Detroit, Detroit, MI
Show Us Some Love, Dubois Basement, Detroit, MI
2019
A Manifest of Ipseities, 333 Midland Annex Gallery, Highland Park, MI
Michigan Emerging Graduate Artists, Urban Institute for Contemporary Arts, Grand Rapids, MI
Graduate Degree Exhibition, Cranbrook Art Museum, Bloomfield Hills, MI
Mom’s Spaghetti, California Carts, Los Angeles, CA
MIND BODY, Hotel Yorba, Detroit, MI
Then and Now, Alumni Exhibition Sonoma State University Art Gallery,
Rohnert Park, CA
2018
Encounters/Encuentros, El Comalito Collective, Vallejo, CA
Summer Show, Forum Gallery, Bloomfield Hills, MI
B.U.F.U., Forum Galley, Bloomfield Hills, MI
2017
BFA Exhibition, Sonoma State University Art Gallery, Rohnert Park, CA
Muxeres, El Comalito Collective, Vallejo, CA (Curator)
2016
Photography and Place Exhibition, Visual and Public Art Department, Marina, CA
Muxeres, El Comalito Collective, Vallejo, CA
RESIDENCIES
2022
Chalk Hill Artist Residency, Healdsburg, CA
Oak Spring Garden and Foundation Residency, Upperville, VA
Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists’ Residency, Saugatuck, MI
2020
Pocoapoco Residency, Oaxaca City, Oaxaca, MX
2019
ACRE Residency, Steuben, WI
2018
Tessellate Residency, Pontiac, MI
AWARDS / PUBLICATIONS
2022
New American Paintings, Midwest, Issue #161, Juror’s Pick
2021
Cruz Santiago, Lorena, & Santana, Alex, “Indigenous Visual Sovereignty: For All the Memories Yet To Be Recorded,” Terremoto Magazine, Issue #21 (Author)
Red Bull Arts Microgrant, Detroit, MI
2019
Mercedes Benz Financial Services New Beginnings Award, Bloomfield Hills, MI
2018
Walter P. Hickey Scholarship, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, M
2017
Warren and Margot Coville Scholarship, Cranbrook Academy of Art, Bloomfield Hills, MI
PUBLIC COLLECTIONS
Los Angeles County Museum of Art