Yohanna M Roa
Statement
I am a visual artist and art historian whose work integrates feminist perspectives with textiles and archival practices. My primary focus is to highlight and recover the ideas and knowledge of women, whose contributions have been excluded or overlooked in mainstream art history. Through my art, I aim to rescue the memories, knowledge, and bodies obscured in traditional historical narratives.
My practice is rooted in a decolonial and intersectional perspective, where race, gender, and social class are fundamental to both my artistic and critical approaches. I am particularly interested in how systems of control operate simultaneously and interdependently, shaping the lived experiences of racialized, gendered, and economically marginalized communities. Historically, women, especially Indigenous, Black, and working-class women—have transmitted knowledge in everyday spaces such as kitchens and sewing rooms, using oral traditions and practical teaching. I conceptualize my artistic practice under the term "activist fabrics," where textile techniques become tools of feminist political action. By focusing on daily activities like food preparation, decoration, and caregiving, I seek to transform these intimate and seemingly mundane spaces into platforms for uncovering connections between personal experiences and larger socio-political structures. In my work, I reveal how these personal, localized stories are inherently tied to broader historical and social contexts, particularly colonial legacies, systemic racism, and labor inequality, challenging the notion that they are isolated or insignificant. My goal is to reclaim and reintroduce these narratives into the fabric of art, ensuring that they are recognized as both social and structural contributions. .
Bio
Yohanna M Roa is a transcultural-feminist visual artist, art historian, and art critic based in New York. She is represented by Ana Tejeda Gallery. She holds a Ph.D. in the History and Critical Theories of Art program from the Universidad Iberoamericana, México, where she graduated Cum Laude with her thesis. She holds a MA in Women and Gender Studies from the CUNY Graduate Center, a MA in Visual Arts from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, and a Bachelor's degree in Visual Arts from the Departmental Institute of Fine Arts of Colombia, a meritorious thesis. Her most recent solo performance occurred at The Thyssen Bornemisza Museum in Madrid in 2024. Her artistic work has been studied, published, and discussed by various scholars and publications, including Karen Cordero for the 109th CAA Annual Conference in 2021, in "Revaluing Feminine Trajectories and Stitching Alternative Genealogies in the Work of Yohanna Roa," and Natalia De la Rosa in "Yohanna M Roa, Textile Woman," published in Casa del Tiempo Magazine, among others. Yohanna has been recognized with the Young Creators Award from the Ministry of Culture of Colombia, and her work is part of the permanent collection of the Tlatelolco Cultural Center in Mexico City. She collaborates regularly with Art Nexus and WhiteHot Magazine. She has had lectures at institutions such as the Museum of Contemporary Art of Mexico and the Latin American Public Art Seminar. In addition, she has served as a jury member for events such as Wienwoche: Festival of Art and Activism in Vienna, Austria, in 2024, the Money for Women Grant from the Barbara Deming Memorial Fund in the USA in 2024 and Liu Shiming Art Foundation Grants for Artists, 2024, NYC.
Yohanna M Roa Represented by Ana Tejada Gallery, CDMX CV - Resume
Academics
• PHD History and Critical Theory of Art. Universidad Iberoaméricana de México. 2018. Cum Laude Thesis.
• MA in Women's and Gender Studies – CUNY, Graduate Center. June 2024.
• MA in Visual Arts. UNAM CDMX 2009
• Degree in Fine Arts. INDEBA - Colombia 2005 Meritorious Thesis
Solo Exhibitions
2025 Lessons to Understand Art History. WhiteBox NYC.
-To Remember You. 2025 artist for the Janet Langsam Vault Grant-Project. Art Westchester, NY. Jury Selection
2024 Malinche And Pocahontas a Visit, Vision and presence 2023: Performance Cycle Thyssen Bornemisza Museum, Madrid, Spain.
2023, The new Historiographical Atlas. Wave Pool Gallery, Cincinnati, OH. Jury Selection
2022 Textile Woman. ArtLatinou Gallery. Mexico City / MACO.
2021 The Past Instructions for its Use. Manifest Gallery, Cincinnati. Jury Selection.
2019 Geographies: the journey to Malacachtepec Momoxco. Calpulli Tecalco. Mexico.
2018 The Past Instructions for its Use. Valenzuela Klener Gallery. Bogota ArtBo weekend
... and we could escape the words. University House of the UANL Book. Monterrey
2017 The Earth Is Flat. Cultural Center Mexiquence Bicentenario. Mexico state.
2014 Fe de Erratas. Proartes Cali
Artist residencies
- Artist in Residency Confluence MFA program, Interdisciplinary • Accessible • Regenerative. Jan 2024.
- Earth day Celebration. Artist in Residency. Feb-May 8th 2024
- The Vance Waddell Residence, Yohanna M Roa: The New Historiographic Atlas, Documents And Portraits. August-September 2023. Wave Pool Gallery Cincinnati, OH. Solo exhibition.
- PTM-NYLLAAT Artists-in-Residence Program. May 5th to June 25th, 2023. Governors Island
- NARS Foundation NYC. July - Sep 2019
- Calpulli Tecalco. January - Dic 2018. Atocpan México
Collections.
- Sara Vance Waddell, OH
- UNAM – CCUTlatelolco México
- Editorial Universitaria UNAL. Monterey NL.
Publications About My Work
- Cultbytes NYC Magazine. Cultbytes Power List: Who to Keep an Eye on in 2025.
- O Bod Magazine. Feminist Inscriptions at the Thyssen Museum. Canada
- Textile Culture Backup, Nocheztli: The Color of the Sacrifice, catalog. Text by Ixchel Ledesma. Textile Culture Net: TextielMuseum, The Netherlands; Central Museum of Textiles in Łódź, Poland; CHAT (Centre for Heritage, Arts and Textile), Hong Kong; Lottozero, Italy. 2024.
- Review Two Coast of Paint About Make it or break it. C24 Gallery NY City. Group Exhibitio, 2024
- Review about my ecofeminist works exhibited at the Tlatelolco Cultural Center, Mexico city : ¨Calihtic, Adentro del Vientre de la casa¨ y ¨la Cocina¨. Spanish. 2023
- Manifest Exhibition Annual Season 17. Solo Show Yohanna M Roa. 2023. Cincinnati OH. English
- (Re)-Generating Narratives ans Imaginaries. Women In Dialogue. Kaluz Museum. CDMX 2022
- Natalia de la Rosa: Yohanna M Roa, Textile Woman. Casa del Tiempo Magazine. 2022. spanish
- Revaluing Feminine Trajectories and Stitching Alternative Genealogies in the Work of Yohanna M. Roa. By Karen Cordero R. The CAA 2021. Anual Conference. English
- The Past Instructions for Its Use. H-ART. N 251- January-June 2020, 351 pp. pp. 242-251 - Magazine of the Department of Art History Universidad de Los Andes -Colombia - Karen Cordero Reiman. 020 Art. Spanish
- Arte Camara / International Art Fair of Bogota - ArbO / Catalog and Guide / Bogotá / 2012
- Six Lines of Flight. Shifting Geographies in contemporary art / San Francisco Museum of Modern Art / USA / 2012 (work with the collective Helena Producciones)
- Ojo cautivado / Picnic, Cultural Magazine, volume 25 / Mexico City / January 2009/ Artículo Luz Sepulveda
Teaching
- Professor - Artist in Residence. This workshop was part of the program Confluence MFA program, Interdisciplinary • Accessible • Regenerative. New Mexico University. Art and Place, Reconsidered – Winter, 2024 - National School of Conservation and Museography of Mexico. Full-time teacher and researcher, Master's degree in conservation of documentary collections. INHA. 2014 – 2018 - Professor of the Two-Dimensional Area. Visual Arts Program, Universidad Javeriana, Cali. 2012.
Awards
- 2025 Janet Langsam Vault grant. Art Westchester - 2023 Vance Waddell grant. Cincinnati, OH. - CONACYT Scholarship – Mexico 2018- 2024 - CONACYT mixed scholarship. 2019
- National Stimulus Scholarship for Creators. Ministry of Culture of Colombia 2013
Group exhibitions
2024 Make it or Break it. C24, Gallery. Chelsea NYC. Second Time Around, James Town Arts Center, RI.
2023.
- Follow The Thread, Proyectos Raul Zamudio Gallery, New York City. - Museos dinámicos. Teoretica, San José Costa Rica. - Re-generando… narrativas e imaginarios. Mujeres en diálogo. MUMA, Sonora. - Xaltilolli. Memorias artes y resistencias, espacio para la construcción de interpretaciones Históricas. Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco. Rotacion de la colección permanente. 2022
- Kaluz Museum. Re)generando narrativas e imaginarios. Mujeres en diálogo. - Renombrar el mundo: Expediciones botánicas en la Nueva España, del Centro Cultural Tlatelolco. Commissioned work. - Off The Cloth. WhiteBox NYC. 2021
-Reconfigurations: Textile as Textuality. MUMA-Mexico - Resilencias Tejidas. Atlatinou Gallery. México City 2020
Good Trouble – White Box Harlem NY - Re-Center – NARS Foundation. Virtual exhibition. NY - La invención del Paisaje – ArtLatinou – México City. Virtual Exhibition - Art Off-Screen – Neumeraky – NY - Art In Place – CNL Projects – Chicago Ill 2019
- Ven y cuéntame la verdá: de la bandeja paisa... al último suflé. Valenzuela Klener Gallery. Bogotá – Colombia - Behind the Seen. NARS Foundation. New York. 2015
Workshops
- Activación de Archivos. CENIDIAP – IMBA. CDMX. Junio 2024 - Visual Arts Workshop Hope Center, NY. Mar – May, 2024. - Confluence MFA program, Interdisciplinary • Accessible • Regenerative. This Workshop was part of the Confluence MFA program, Interdisciplinary • Accessible • Regenerative. New Mexico University. Art and Place, Reconsidered – Winter, 2024 - Hueixopantlaxcali, La Tortilla Grande Del Tiempo Verde. (the Big Omelet of the rain Times). CCUTlatelolco, CDMX. -Personal and Community Archives. Swiss Institute, NY, 2023 - The power Mask. El Centro Hispano. June 13th 2023, Arts Westchester. - Collages workshop. Arts Westchester, 2023. - The Power of Words. Arts and Activism. Westchester Youth Alliance. 2023 - Costumes Workshop. Earth day Celebration. Mara 8 – May 13th, 2023 - Workshop: Personal memory configuration. 6,7, and February 8, 2018. Secretary of Extension and Culture and Management of University Publishing. University House of the UANL Book - Workshop: Community Archives - Personal Archives October 2017. Cultural Area of the Banco de la República. Cali, Colombia - Are there collections without public? The social relations that make up the collections. / Clinic taught / Alameda Art Laboratory. 2016 - Workshop: Cali Live Document. Cultural Area of the Bank of the Republic. Cali, Colombia. VII –VIII 2016
Curatorial
2024 - TerraTextl. WhiteBox NYC - “Another Postcard Here and There” WhiteBox’ Series New York ArtScapes - African Animism. Lorenzo Pace At WhiteBox, for the Black History Month. 2023 - The Braid - La trenza. WhiteBox NY. A Collective Feminist Curatorial - Taller Boricua, From ArtWorkers Coalitions through today - Re-shaping the sugar. Caribbean artists in NY. WBX NY 2022 - Deshilar la Revolución Cotidiana. Museo la Tertulia, Cali Colombia. Seminario Textil, Universidad ICESI de Cali - Piel Es. Museo la Tertulia, Cali Colombia - JMA Matriarchive In Resistance WBX NY
Art Criticism and Writing
- Threads to the South: Exhibition at the Institute for Studies on Latin America Art - ISLAA”. Art Nexus Magazine - Projects: Tadáskía at The Museum of Modern Art – MoMA. Art Nexus Magazine - Agamemnon: The Circle of Blood at La MaMa NYC. INES_Magazina. - ¨Mother as Mirror: Sohrab Hura, Poignant Exploration at MOMA PS1. WhiteHot Magazine. - Steve Silver, Empirical Horizons at Westwood Gallery NYC. WhiteHot Magazine • “BODIES: Ray Yoshida, Christina Ramberg, Deborah Druick at David Nolan Gallery”, NYC, for WhiteHot Magazine • Laura Anderson Barbata at Marlborough gallery. Art Nexus Magazine, May 2024 • Vladimir Sorokin: BLUE LARD #cancelrussianculture. WhiteHot Magazine. May 2024. • Cantando Bajito, "Testimonies," at the Ford Foundation. WhiteHot Magazine. April 2024 • Ariamna Contino & Alex Hernández-Dueñas. Nunu Fine Art Gallery, NY-Taipei. Art Nexus Dec – May 2024 • Macho: Representing Masculinity Another Space. NYC. By Yohanna M. Roa. Art Nexus Aug – Nov 2023 • Club Cementerio, Julia San Martín solo show: Raúl Zamudio Projects / Empty Circle NYC. Art Review City. Aug. 2023 • Review about three solo Shows at A.I.R. Gallery on WhiteHot Magazine. Maxine Henryson, Zoila Andrea Coc-Chang (鄭慧蘭) and Keli Safia Maksud • PEREMOGA /victory/ukr. at WhiteBox. WhiteHot Magazine. Review by Yohanna M Roa. • Tramas de Resistencia. Ponencia. Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas UNAM. Link video-grabación ver Información general • Carolina Caycedo and David de Rozas, MoMA Projects. Review by Yohanna M. Roa Art Nexus Magazine. • A Crack in the Hourglass, An Ongoing COVID-19 Memorial. Rafael Lozano Hammer. Review by Yohanna M Roa. ARTNEXUS Magazine. • Latin American Artists at the New Museum Art Triennial. Review By Yohanna M Roa. Art Nexus
Yohanna M Roa. Photo by Antonio Juárez Caudillo