Kiara Aileen Machado

Kiara Aileen Machado (born 1993) is an American visual artist known for paintings that utilize vibrant colors, plant life, and recuerditos (souvenirs).

Biography Machado was born in 1993 in Lynwood, California. She earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in drawing and painting at California State University Long Beach in 2018. Her Guatemalan Salvadoran family encouraged her artistic career and economically supports her.

Art The Quetzal Migrante is a collaborative art project consisting of East Bay artists including Machado, Lulu Matute, Dulce Lopez, Oona Valle, and others. In late 2019, they gathered at Playas de Tijuana to paint a mural on the U.S.-Mexican border wall and to provide healing workshops for migrants seeking asylum.

The mural Come Walk With Me was painted by Machado as part of the El Monte city campaign "Summer of Solidarity" by the "community-based system" LA vs. Hate. It portrays El Monte's Latinx, Asian, LGBTQ+, and Black communities with different cultural foods and businesses. "Llamáme Por Mi Nombre" (2023) at the Buckham Gallery; "En Medio: Senses of Migration" (2022) at the John and Geraldine Lilley Museum of Art; and "CARAVANA: Mobilizing Central American Art (1984-Present)" (2021) at SOMArts.