CHISPA
Koyoltzintli
Bio
Grounded in Indigenous ontologies, Latinx anthropology and Nepantla; I seek to understand the sonic and oral traditions that have populated the Americas for millenia as a way to repair, reclaim and reimagine temporalities of healing, tell stories across time/space and the body. I also gaze at the night sky, the way my ancestors did, to inquire about how to make sense of the world and ultimately connect with them and their stubborn capacity to survive in us.
Koyoltzintli is an interdisciplinary artist, a healer and educator living in New York. She grew up on the coast of Ecuador and the Andes, geographies that permeate in her work. She focuses on geopoetics, ancestral technologies, ritual and storytelling through collaborative processes and personal narratives. Intersectional theories, and earth-based healing informs her practice. Nominated for Prix Pictet in 2019, her work has been exhibited in the National Portrait Gallery in Washington, DC, the United Nations, Aperture Foundation in NYC, and Paris Photo, among others. She has been an artist in residence in the US, France, and Italy and has taught at CalArts, SVA, ICP, and CUNY. Rivadeneira has received multiple awards and fellowships including the Photographic Fellowship at the Musée du Quai Branly in Paris, NYFA Fellowship, and the IA grant by the Queens Council of the Arts. Her first monograph Other Stories was published in 2017 by Autograph ABP, her work was featured in the Native issue of Aperture Magazine (no. 240). In 2021, her work was included in the book Latinx Photography in the United States by Elizabeth Ferrer chief curator at BRIC.