April 2021 Artist of the Month
Each month in 2021 – The Year of the Artist, a different arts category will be highlighted with an artist in that field being celebrated as the Artist of the Month.
Diana Molina, artist, curator, and author of Icons and Symbols of the Borderland, Art from the US-Mexico Crossroads, has served as the JUNTOS Art Association’s creative director since 2012. Born a half-mile from the US-Mexico boundary, her work across diverse mediums explores the limitations of life on the fringe while appealing to a universal audience.
Molina’s book explores artistic interpretations of the US/Mexico borderland story that are central to a traveling Juntos Art Association exhibition featuring artists from both sides of the border. The show has 100 artworks representing various mediums, from large paintings to mixed-media collage, neon, photography, and sculpture. The book seeks to blend many voices and points of view in its depictions of the negative and positive effects of border politics on the environmental and cultural landscape, providing a comprehensive narrative for the exhibition. The artwork will be featured at the Carlsbad Museum of Art May-September 2021.
Molina began her career path as a software engineer in the initial stages of robotics and automation at IBM. She spent a decade working in Amsterdam as a photographer and writer for international magazines, including Elle, Esquire, Geo, Marie Claire, National Geographic Traveler, Vogue, and contributing to Amsterdam, Small Town Big City (1996).
Living among the Tarahumara of northern Mexico for long periods, Molina’s first solo exhibition about the indigenous culture was prepared for the World Museum of Art in Rotterdam. Her exhibits have been widely shown in art, science, and history museums in the United States and Europe. Several of her photo essays are archived at the UT El Paso Special Collections Library and the UT Austin Benson Latin American Collection. Molina is part of the New Mexico Humanities Council Lecture Program and builds on her interest in the connections between art, ecology, and humanity. She currently resides and works in southeast New Mexico.
