Today we’d like to introduce you to Cristina Victor.
Hi Cristina, so excited to have you on the platform. So, before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
I am Cuban-American, born and raised in Miami. I feel like all my work, no matter the medium stems from that hyphen. My family fled the Castro Regime in the late 60s and early 70s. So being around my elders had a strong impact on me growing up and so did the aesthetics, energy, and history of Miami. I’ve been an artist ever since I can remember playing as a child. Drawing is where it started. I went to public school for most of my early education and then attended Miami Dade Community College and its partner program at the New World School of the Arts. I did a good amount of study abroad in Italy before transferring to Sarah Lawrence College to finish my BA with a focus on Latin American History and literature. After living in New York for nearly 4 years, on a whim, I moved to the west coast and attended the San Francisco Art Institute where I earned my MFA in New Genres while focusing on performance, video, and installation. I didn’t really allow myself to live as an artist or even call myself an artist until I was 28 and ready to pursue my MFA. I’ve been a practicing interdisciplinary artist ever since. My work has carried me to various cities throughout the US but my new home is now in Charleston, South Carolina.
I am quite tenacious and I get very involved in fostering community. While I make artwork that is auto-ethnography, I also dedicate myself to social practice projects because I feel that art is a responsibility and tool for change. Being equally invested in these modes of making art helps me feel balanced. I’ve had many kinds of jobs that have sustained me through out so of course those experiences also surface in the work. The only way I got to where I am today is with the support of my loved ones, peers, and creative community which only expands with every opportunity.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle-free, but so far would you say the journey has been a fairly smooth road?
There’s nothing smooth about pursuing art but especially if you are a person of color. Struggles have been many, and failure was something I became very acquainted with. I had no safety net. The risks I took had major weight and when things worked out, it was glorious. The best high. But I also had to become very acquainted with rejection and criticism or worse dismissal. I think some of the hardest lessons had to do with working with collectors and dealers in my early adulthood, and art institutions first in Miami, just as Basel was shaping it as an art city, and later in New York. Witnessing the thinking and motivations behind what artists got support, and why and how work was resold knowing not a dime of the markup was going to the maker was deflating. Still is. Seeing those white male artists too often had the advantage. Seeing that identity work was overlooked (though I feel this has come a long way since).
All of this shaped my ethics in how I wanted to engage in this world. I became hyper-aware of accessibility. I’m very particular about who I sell my work to or who I collaborate with when I do public practice work.
The challenges, failures, and disappointment were all generative. They made me learn to hustle, find a way and take on a bit of a punk/subversive approach to how I navigated within and around this weird thing we call an art world that in the end is no different than any other industry. Tenacity and community are necessary.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a visual/ social practice artist that works in textiles, design, installation, public projects, ceramics, and just about anything that my idea requires me to work with. I use these mediums to materialize language, memory, and critique how the media construct identity. I typically have several works going on at once. I am also an avid Vexillologist (flag nerd). I design and make flags. I teach flag design through my public project, My Story Is My Flag, which I’ve been doing for 6 years now. The project involves me working with an organization to teach community members how to design their own unique flags. I help them make and refine their designs and then I produce their flag, either by hand or digitally to be manufactured. The idea is to encourage generative discussions about identity through design and visibility.
My ceramic works include sculptures and functional ware. The pieces are custom made and aesthetically a love letter to Miami Deco architecture.
Where we are in life is often partly because of others. Who/what else deserves credit for how your story turned out?
My SFAI community, all of my artist friends who are also hustling, my friends who may not be artists but support the arts, anyone who ever gave me an opportunity to show my work or participated in my projects, artist residencies I’ve been to, my family and partner for their moral support.
Contact Info:
- Email: cristina.m.victor@gmail.com
- Website: https://www.cristinavictor.com/
- Instagram: @sabiaprojects | @sabiaceramics
Image Credits
Colin Conces
Lacey Haslam
