ARTIST STATEMENT
My work deals with language, cultural identity, the immigrant experience, social justice and war. Over the past ten years, I have been working with images of war. Later focusing on my own experiences of war and loss in my native Colombia. I have used a pictorial narrative to tell historical events exploring my role as a visual artist and a storyteller. I am an artist, a printmaker, an educator, and a community activist. My work is usually triggered by political events or a desire to reconstruct memory, both individual and collective.
BIO
A native of Santa Marta, Colombia, Josefina has consistently exhibited her work in solo and group exhibitions in the San Francisco Bay Area, specifically at The de Young Museum, The Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, The Museum of the Legion of Honor and in numerous institutions in the United States, Colombia and Germany. Josefina has worked as a visiting artist and collaborated in several projects with The Mission Cultural Center for Latino Arts and The San Francisco Arts Commission. Her work has also been included in permanent collections of the Worcester Art Museum, Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, The Museum of Modern Art of Cartagena, Colombia, and in private collections. Josefina obtained her BA at San Francisco State University (1995), and her M.F.A. at the San Francisco Art Institute (1997). She also studied art at the Universitá Internazionale dell’Arte in Florence (1984). Currently she lives and works in Oakland, where she has her studio.