Overview
Gilda is a Xicana cultural worker from Southeast Los Angeles. Her interdisciplinary practices are rooted in working from, with, and by the Xicanx community. Gilda’s projects are invested in decolonial practices that challenge hegemonic patriarchal and heteronormative oppressive structures. Her research interest includes decolonial theory and its formation through Xicanx Studies, the evolution of Xicanx identity and its visualization through art and curation, and Xicanx art social engagement in methodologies and curriculum.
As a visual artist she utilizes printmaking, fabric/weaving, and a digital process to bring forward concepts of intersectionality dealing with: identity formation, queerness, gender, nepantla, mestizaje, radical third-world feminism, trauma, liberation, alternative healing methods, democracy, and decolonial practices. She is an active member of the artist collective Espacio Tercero (www.espaciotercero.com). Her work has been exhibited nationally, most notably in the 6th Chicana Chicano Biennial. She has been featured in publications such as Art Practical and Third Woman Press Anthology.
Gilda received her AB from UC Davis in Chicana/o Studies and Comparative Literature. She graduated with a dual degree from California College of the Arts in the MFA Social Practice program and the M.A. Visual and Critical Studies program. Prior to her graduate work, she served as the Curator for Galería de la Raza in San Francisco, CA and Assistant Director for Taller Arte del Nuevo Amanecer in Woodland, CA.