Artist Talk: Eilen Itzel Mena
August 19, 2021
On Sept. 14, the Art and Art History Department is pleased to host Ukrop Guest Artist Eilen Itzel Mena for an Artist’s Talk. Her multifaceted creative practice helps her connect African Diaspora, spirituality, culture, identity, and purpose. Eilen will discuss her art practice and the ways in which she actively creates a personal symbolic language inspired by her life experiences, dreams and spirituality. She will also discuss the ways in which she reimagines Western semiotics and color theory principles in her work by juxtaposing it with African Diasporic sacred color combinations, the semiotics of Ifa and her own ancestry. Eilen will draw parallels with contemporary methods for reimagining semiotics through digital media, such as Emojis. The purpose of this lecture will be to challenge the ways students understand semiotics in their critical study classes as well as provide them with methods to explore their personal aesthetic as artists.
Eilen Itzel Mena is an Afro-Dominican American artist, writer and community organizer from the South Bronx based in Los Angeles and New York. She graduated from the University of Southern California in 2017, with a Bachelor's Degree in Fine Arts. Her visual arts practice synthesizes Abstract Expressionism, Surrealism and African Diaspora spiritual frameworks through interdisciplinary work. In her social practice, she serves as a Co-Director and creative collaborator for Honey and Smoke, a global artist community and platform focused on creating space for artists to meditate on the important themes of our time through themed seasons. It is a conceptual project that explores these themes through new media and interactive digital content. She is also a Principal Member of Zeal. Zeal is a Black artist cooperative, creative agency and studio that creates infrastructure for Black artists to thrive.
Eilen has exhibited work in New York, San Francisco, Miami and London and has been covered by various publications such as Vogue, The New York Times, Cultured Magazine, Deem Journal and Hyperallergic, amongst others. In 2018, she participated in the LSI Artist Residency in London, UK organized by the UCL Slade School of
Fine Arts and the Camden Arts Center. In 2020, she was an artist in residence for Zeal’s Art Studio Incubator Program in Inglewood, CA. Through Zeal, she curated the exhibition 'Who Owns Black Art?: Questions on Cultural Ownership' in Miami during Art Basel 2019. Website: www.eilenitzelmena.com
This visit is made possible by the Ted and Katie Blair Ukrop Visiting Artist Fund
Public Event – Lecture
4:15 pm, Tuesday, September 14
Peeler Auditorium, DePauw University, 10 West Hanna Street, Greencastle, IN 46135
Free and open to the public
Image credit photographer Julia Ryan.
The artwork is a detail of To be Born, 2021 - 30in x 40in - Acrylic & Oil Sticks on Canvas.