Participants and their wagers:
Frank Vega: South American celebrations and traditions in relation to Indigenism
Frank Vega is an Ecuadorian-born artist who currently lives in Chicago. He received a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Vega’s paintings and sculptures explores different aspects of our human condition and identity. His move to the USA motivated him to find new ways of communication by developing colorful abstracted characters that celebrate his Ecuadorian culture influenced by different celebrations, dances, traditional clothing, and masks. https://frankvega.net
Elsa Muñoz: Relational theory (action) as a response to the Anthropocene
Elsa Muñoz is a Mexican-American oil painter who grew up on the south side of Chicago. They are interested in art’s potential role in health and liberation, individual and collective. http://www.elsamunoz.com
Juan Molina Hernández: Home, haven and heaven
Juan Molina Hernández, born in Guanajuato, México, is a Chicago-based visual artist. Molina Hernández’s art practice primarily uses photography to create narratives that address the complexities of the hybrid immigrant identity. By appropriating symbols from the environment, culture, and personal memory they construct stories in relation to place, family, and a culture that never speaks one language. Molina Hernández graduated from Northern Illinois University in 2016 with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in photography. http://www.juanmolinahernandez.com
Giselle Mira-Diaz: Generational trauma through an immigrant lens
Giselle Mira Diaz is a Canadian-American based Visual Artist, from Colombian descent. She has a BFA from OCAD University and a Masters of Arts in Art Education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. She is interested in defining self-identity, heritage, and the hybrid cultures produced from multicultural interactions. http://www.gisellemiradiaz.com
Astro Escudero: The Plantationocene
Astro Escudero was born and raised in Ecuador, South America. They are an interdisciplinary artist experimenting with image-making in Chicago. Their work focuses on reviewing history to make omissions around the body and intimacy more apparent. To do so, they use agricultural staples, personal objects, and bodily extensions as incantations to connect with the past. https://www.maria-escudero.com
Daye Angely: Bending perception with science and imagination
Daye Angely is an independent writer researching the implications of true universal inclusion. They are currently writing fiction that blends elements of futurism, alternate history, and dystopia. They graduated from Rutgers University with a B.A. in Literature, studied playwrighting under Caridad Svich and Hilary Bell, and interned with Playwriting Australia during the National Script Workshops.