CARLOS WILFREDO ENCARNACION

Bronx, NY

CREATIVE DISCIPLINE- 
Visual Arts

PRIMARY MEDIUM(S)-
Mixed Media/Painting

ARTIST STATEMENT- 
I create paintings, drawings, collage and mixed media artworks using imagery from tropical flora and Puerto Rican pre-colonial and craft arts. I use biomorphic patterns to construct visual imaginary connections between my motherland’s nature, my ancestors and myself while exploring complexities of my nostalgia, dislocation, and 'diasporican' experiences. In my practice I mediate with my identities as a Puerto Rican, rural, gay, introvert, Caribbean and spiritual man. My attempt is for them to coexist. It is an exercise in which I understand myself in relation to issues of belongingness by exploring and redefining ways of connection with myself and with my environment.  

ARTIST BIOGRAPHY-
Carlos Wilfredo Encarnación is a visual artist and art educator born and raised in Puerto Rico. Encarnación received a BA in Social Sciences/Forensic Psychology from the Universidad de Puerto Rico, a BA from CUNY-Herbert H. Lehman College, and an MFA from CUNY-The City College of New York. He is the recipient of the Bronx Recognizes Its Own (BRIO) Award in 2019 and 2021, Bronx Museum’s AIM Fellowship 2019, and BronxArtSpace/Governors Island Initiative Resident 2020. Encarnación has collaborated in public and community-based art projects with non-profit organizations and currently works as an artist/mentor for artists with functional diversity in The Bronx.

Instagram:
@carloswilfredoart