I investigate the material (sur)realities of urban detritus, often combining these found and fabricated objects in ritualistic baths of salt, sugar, soil, and dyes. Through these processes, I engage with the social connotations of precariousness, creativity, and the ritualistic nature of the everyday.

Francheska Alcántara is a queer Afro-Caribbean interdisciplinary artist raised by a village of people in community and based between Richmond, VA and The Bronx. Their work plays at the intersection of gesture, ritual, and myth within the Black diasporic imagination. Francheska reworks, repurposes, and transforms artifacts such as brown paper bags, Hispano cuaba soap, dominoes, and organic residues through sewing, folding, cutting, burning, and layering.

Francheska uses the subjective experiences of these artifacts or actions to interrogate how they create social meaning and cultural norms. These explorations point to slippages and resistance around colonial relations while expanding our capacity for pleasure, refusal, and liberation.

Alcántara holds an MFA in Sculpture + Extended Media from Virginia Commonwealth University (2019), a BFA in Painting from Hunter College (2015), and a BA in Art History from Old Dominion University. They have been a resident artist at LMCC’s Workspace (2024), Tulsa Artist Fellowship (2020-2023), MASS MoCA (2023), and Recess’ Session (2022). Alcántara is currently a Queer | Art Mentorship Fellow under the guidance of Liz Collins and serves as a faculty member at the University of Richmond.

Selected Works