Artist-in-Residence: Lilliam Nieves

UO Campus, July 2019

 This residency, a partnership with the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, provided support for Lilliam Nieves to develop work from her Beauty Queen series for the museum’s permanent collection. Beauty Queen IV (taladro) alludes to Puerto Rico’s obsession with beauty pageants, one of the few international arenas where the U.S. Commonwealth competes as an independent nation and often wins. Nieves’ self-portrait challenges the typical image of a beauty queen. Holding a drill-a tool she uses to make her art-like a weapon, and proudly wearing a crown of long metal hair styling clips, she exudes resistance and empowerment.

Lilliam Nieves is an educator, writer, painter, photographer, installation artist, sculptor and video performer who lives in work in Puerto Rico. Her education in the arts began in La Liga de Arte San Juan. In 1999, she obtained a Bachelor of Fine Arts at La Escuela de Artes de de Puerto Rico with a concentration in Art Education. Nieves later received a Master of Fine Arts in New Media from Donau-Universitat Krems in association with Transart Institute (Austria / Berlin / New York). From 2007 to 2012 she has also maintained a career as a writer and blogger at Trance Liquido and other publications in addition to her studio art practice.