Portfolio

My Portfolio is an offering of cyclical time [non-linear] shared as a story-map with no borders where lines make connections [not separations] and all forms of artistic expression interact with one other [non-categorical]. Renderings of all sorts; photography, paintings, performance, writing, installation art, sculpture, textile all find their home here on this page interfacing my inner and outer worlds.

thank you for visiting and spending time here, Laila.

“Found You in Facebook”, Screenshot of my mother for mixed media digital altar, currently in progress.

El tiempo no es linear

El fantasma siempre llama a la memoria y juntas abren portales sin obedecer las leyes escritas por los hombres

Caminando mano en mano, lanzan sus ojos con hilos hacia el otro lado Se visten de espejos que encontraron en la cueva subterranea donde se conocieron

Reflejando Luz a cada esquina donde el movimiento se detiene

Y asi es como el fantasma y la memoria hacen que todo lo que es pequeño y tierno viva y crezca, suavizando angulos limitantes y redondeando el tiempo [OTRA VEZ].

“Portals”, Mixed media Installation altar, performance and experimental photography, part of “Mirror” Series.
“Mother at SunRise”, Mixed media altar installation, performance and experimental photography, part of “Mirror” Series.
“Ofrendas”, Performance, Albany Bulb, CA. 2019..
“Ofrendas”, Performance, Albany Bulb, CA. 2019..
Photography and text, US/Mexico Border Wall and Rio Grande. 2022
“Huipil Fronterizo”, Performance and hand-made Huipil, U.S/Mexico Border at Ciudad Juarez, Chihuhua, Mexico, 2017.
“Huipil Fronterizo”, Performance in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico at the U.S/Mexico National Border, 2016.
“Huipil Fronterizo”, Performance in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico at the U.S/Mexico National Border, 2016.
“The Circuit”, Performance and Photography, CCA, Oakland. 2014
“Mother at SunDown”, Mixed media altar installation, performance and experimental photography, part of “Mirror” Series.
“The Call”, Acrylic, oil pastel, soil and mirror on wood. 2013
“Tree Bark Mirror”, Acrylic paint, oil pastel, marker, tree bark, cut mirror on wood. 2013
“Ni Una Mas!”, part of the Body Altar-Huipil Fronterizo Project and Performance. Ciudad Juarez (U.S/Mexico National Border). 2016
“La Casa Verde”, acrylic on canvas, 2021
“The Ancestor Realm”, Acrylic on canvas. 2020
“Feather Foot”, Photography. U.S/Mexico Border. 2020
“Birds are Falling from the Sky”, U.S/Mexico Border. 2020
“Altar for Bird”. U.S/Mexico Border. 2020
“Mujer Pájaro”, Oil Painting, 2001.
“Lifting the Veil”, Mixed Media Quilt, 2000.
“She Flew Away”, Mixed Media Quilt, 2001.

My gramma gave me a pair of scissors and pointed to the black plastic garbage bags full of the “throw-aways” that the rich lady whose house she cleaned would give her. I angrily refused. Then, my auntie took her own life and I couldn’t stop cutting. The plastic bags empty-the give-away curtains, the give-away table covers, the give-away oversized dresses and blouses all cut up into little pieces of tactile color scattered all over the floor in the living room. Later I found the thread and the needle, realized I could put it all [back] together, but differently…the way I want(ed) it. My story.

“Through the Wound”, Installation. 2016
“Virago”, Acrylic and yarn on canvas. Painting and Installation. 2016
“Coyoltxauqui” Textile. 2017
“Huipil Fronterizo”, Back side. Hand-made, hand-painted and embroidered garment. Presented at SOMARTS, SF. 2016
“Speak”, Acrylic paint, thread and cushion pins on canvas. 2009
“La Sirena Speaks” acrylic and oil pastels on canvas. Part of Nomadic Art Project. Lake Meritt, Oakland CA. 2016
Athol Courts Open Studio Project, Oakland, CA. 2016.
“Altar para los estudiantes de Ayotzinapa”, Installation and Teach-in Space, California College of the Arts
Altar Installation and Performance at SOMARTS, San Francisco, CA. 2016
“Be An Active Witness”, Installation and Performance. California College of the Arts, 2018.
“Huipil Fronterizo”, Performance at U.S/Mexico National Border at Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, Mexico , 2017.
“Ofrendas”, Performance at the Albany Bulb, CA. 2019.
Performance for “La Casa Verde”, Master’s Thesis, 2020.
“Be An Active Witness” Installation at the California College of the Arts Gallery, 2018.
“Ofrendas”, Performance at the Albany Bulb, CA. 2019.

Laila Guadalupe Espinoza is a visual and performance artist and scholar. Her work spans across the art practices of garment design, painting, photography, installation of altars and performance of contemporary ceremony and ritual as well as writing. She grew up in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua, México and the U.S/Border during the beginning phases of the maquiladora industry expansion and the feminicidio. Through her work, Laila seeks to talk about/write about/make art about, study and teach about the every day life experience of the U.S/Mexico Border and the intimately cultural, historical and political relationship between Indigenous America and Black people, Mestizaje, gendered violence, labor, contemporary colonialism, the body and the land.