Julianny Ariza Vólquez

Julianny Ariza Vólquez (1987, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic)
is a Dominican visual artist. Her work is about rethinking social patterns and ideologies of domesticity in its material dimension, primarily through sculptures, installations and painting. Ariza Volquez studied Visual Arts at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Visuales of Santo Domingo, D. R. (2008) and Fine Arts and Illustration at the Altos de Chavon School of Design (2010). Julianny Ariza Vólquez has participated in various group and solo exhibitions and in the development of Community Art workshops.

Notable Art residencies include: Künstlerhaus Schloss Balmoral, Germany (2013) and AS220, U.S. (2012). She was awarded at the 28 Concurso de Arte Eduardo León Jimenes (2021) and at the 27th Bienal Nacional de Artes Visuales from D. R. (2013). She’s a co-creator of the Dominican art publication project Onto. Her work has been exhibited at Casa Quien, D. R. (2016); Art Wynwood International Contemporary Art Fair, U. S. (2014); Museo de Arte Moderno, D. R. (2014); CUNY Dominican Studies Institute, U. S. (2013); Made in Balmoral Gallery, Germany (2013); Atrium Gallery, U. S. (2013); Galería Nacional de Bellas Artes, D. R. (2011); Centro Cultural de España, D. R. (2010) among others.

https://juliannyariza.com/
Julianny Ariza Vólquez is a co-creator and collaborator at ONTO http://www.onto.pub/

STATEMENT

My work is about rethinking the social patterns that are introduced through the material/ physical  dimension. The work represents architectural forms, furniture and objects, all borrowing the aesthetics of political, religious and gender power. These representations are reflected in our behavior and ideologies of domesticity. 

The practice entails reviewing spaces of memory such as domestic and institutional collections, which guide me to become aware of colonial representations. I explore the incidence of material culture in the construction of our collective imaginary, which has been forged around an exclusionary and erasure model of our indigenous, afro-descendent and female identity. I seek to propose new imaginations of coexistence and recovery, where Afro-diasporic and Taino cultures are concerned, mainly through ceramic, fabric and wooden sculptures, paintings and installations.

For me, it is necessary to understand that “collected” objects exist beyond a story, an event or as static, lifeless, inanimate artifacts.  

These objects are part of the ancestral worldview. They relate how previous generations, our Taino and African ancestors portrayed themselves, the tangible part of their connection with the non-visible world.”

About the series,

NO OBJETOS

The No Objetos/ Non Objects series questions the concept/ notions of Taino and afro-diasporic heritage. It is based on the Non-Places concept, coined by the French anthropologist Marc Augé, who refers to spaces that have been stripped of the symbolic expressions of their identity, and which are not defined as subjects of historical and relational construction for the official narrative.

Just as in places, so it is manifested in objects, being emptied of their legacy (true meaning), in the construction of our material memory. This is observed in local museums in the Dominican Republic, where institutional collections lack or minimize the African presence (as part of DR’s history). 

Local museums limit our access to different stories and alternate ways in which we identify ourselves, think about ourselves. The presence of the afro-diaspora has focused on the immaterial heritage, such as religious manifestations, events, rituals and music, but the materiality or material heritage of Afro-diasporic presence remains limited/ rare/ absent. 

For me, it is necessary to understand that “collected” objects exist beyond a story, an event or as static, lifeless, inanimate artifacts.  

These objects are part of the ancestral worldview. They relate how previous generations, our Taino and African ancestors portrayed themselves, the tangible part of their connection with the non-visible world.