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 about 

artist statement

I am a contemporary interdisciplinary artist working in mixed-media installation. My work brings together handmade and found elements—clay, fabric, wood, paper—with video projection and sound to construct immersive environments.

 

Drawing inspiration from the poetic sensibility of Pablo Neruda, Garcia Lorca and other “Leap” poets, my work navigates the space between the conscious and the unconscious; the ordinary and the extraordinary; the rational and the irrational. Through metaphor and symbolic language, I explore the emotional and psychological dimensions of socio-political experience.

 

My practice is deeply informed by my lived experience as a Latin American woman in the United States. It reflects on migration, displacement, and the condition of being a foreigner, while engaging with the intertwined histories and political realities of El Salvador, Colombia, and the U.S.

 

I am interested in how personal memory intersects with collective history—how intimate narratives can hold broader structures of power, violence, resilience, and transformation.

 

My installations often inhabit a space of tension: they can be joyful and seductive, yet also unsettling or ominous. Within this duality, I seek to create moments of recognition, where viewers encounter both the familiar and the unknown.

bio

Born in New York City of Colombian and Salvadoran parents, Tessie Barrera-Scharaga followed her family’s trajectories through the Americas (North, Central, and South) in her childhood and teenage years, returning to the U.S. to attend college. Though she has resided in California for most of her adult life, she continues to maintain a deep connection to her Latin American cultural roots. Barrera-Scharaga received a BFA in Spatial Arts from San Jose State University, and an MFA in Studio Art from Mills College. She lives and works in San Jose, California, where she has shown her work extensively. She also participates in art shows in the greater San Francisco Bay Area, and abroad.

 

Recent shows include Living With Endangered Languages in the Information Age at Root Division in San Francisco, CA, Songs and Sorrows at the Oakland Museum, and most recently, Kindness as Resistance, at the Euphrat Museum, in Cupertino, CA. 

 

Tessie Barrera-Scharaga has been the recipient of grants from the Center for Cultural Innovation and the San Jose Office of Cultural Affairs. She has also received recognition from local art organizations for artistic excellence, and awards for her leadership in community art projects.    

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