Bibiana Suárez

Bibiana Suárez (born 1960) is a Latin American artist from Puerto Rico. She specializes in painting with mixed media. Her work reflects the immigrant experience of a search for self-identification and the problems of living on the edge between two cultures. She has participated in solo and group exhibitions, exhibiting in Mexico, the United States, and Puerto Rico. Suárez is known for her installation of Memoria, which includes a pair matching Memory game of 108 mixed media paintings that discuss Latinization of U.S. culture. Two roosters are illustrated in challenging positions from one another. One bird reflects a healthy, fat, and feathered rooster. In opposition, the other rooster is solely sketched as a skeleton. Despite their differences in appearance, they both are beak to beak at the same angle. The intent of the image is to portray the power struggles of Puerto Rico and the United States. The United States is presented as the healthy and dominating rooster, yet the weakened rooster is Puerto Rico but courageously continues to face the conqueror despite its setbacks. The background of the painting is a breast, where inside of the breast an image of a half Jesus and half an Uncle Sam are illustrated. Their faces and body are half and half of each. The surrounding is painted royal blue. Suarez, as seen with previous works of hers depicting being part of two cultures, The art piece's background is a bright green, with the number 27 in the top right corner. In the center, the heart is illustrated with bright colors of yellow, red, blue, and light pink. The heart is wounded with blood gushing out. El Corazon (The Heart) is written at the bottom left corner. The intent of this piece reflects on the broader issue of acceptance and welcome as an immigrant.

Collections Arkansas Art Center in Little Rock, Arkansas DePaul Art Museum in Chicago, Illinois Maria de Los Angeles Torres and Mathew Piers at Chicago, IL Public Art Collection at Harold Washington and Humboldt Park Public Libraries in the city of Chicago, Illinois The Mary and Leigh Block Gallery at Northwestern University in Chicago

Honors and awards In autumn of 2011 at DePaul University, Suárez was a faculty fellow at the Center for Latino Research. She won the Illinois Arts Council Individual Visual Artist Fellowships Awards three times, in the years of 1991, 1994, and 1999. The Arts Midwest/NEA Regional Visual Arts Fellowship was awarded to her in 2012 and for 2003-2004 in the Center for study of Race, Politics, and Culture at the University of Chicago, she was the inaugural recipient artist in the residence fellowship.

Publications Based on a section of an exhibition of Antonio Martorell's work at the Institute for Puerto Rican Art and Culture, Bibiana Suárez published the "Culture Vulture" in the Chicago Reader. She also produced an essay and reproductions of work from the Memory series that were included in Dialogo, volume 15 in 2012, at the Journal of the Center for Latino Research, in DePaul University.