Carmen Lizardo
To Swallow a River
2022 En Foco Fellowship Exhibition
Nov 2 - Dec 2, 2023
I intertwine personal narratives with political and cultural legacies, delving into the themes of immigration, race, class, and identity. My work begins as an autobiographical experience.
The series To Swallow a River casts me as an archivist. I utilize a combination of portraits and documents sourced from public and personal archives, along with original photographs, encapsulating the innate human desire to find our place within history, particularly within the expansive tapestry of the American Cultural Collective.
Carmen Lizardo (Dominican, b. 1970, she/her/hers) was born in the Dominican Republic and immigrated to the U.S. at 19. She holds a BFA in Photography and an MFA in Digital Art from Pratt Institute. For Lizardo, using multiple media is an essential part of her work, particularly alternative photo processes, printmaking, drawing, and video work. Lizardo’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally. She has received several awards, including a Women Studio Workshop Book Production Grant, a New York Foundation for the Arts fellowship (nominated in both Painting and Photography), The Academy of Arts and Letters, and Enfoco fellowship. Lizardo was one of five American Artists of Latino descent awarded an international travel and production grant from the U.S. Department of Cultural Affairs. Her works have been included in two academic books: Gum Printing: A Step-by-Step Manual Highlighting Artists and Their Creative Practice (Focal Press) and The Book of Alternative Photographic Processes (Cengage Learning). Lizardo is a tenured faculty at the State University of New York at New Paltz.
En Foco, Inc. is a non-profit that supports U.S. based photographers of African, Asian, Latino, Native American, and Pacific Islander heritage. Founded in 1974, En Foco makes their work visible to the art world, yet remains accessible to under-served communities. Through exhibitions, workshops, events, and publications, it provides professional recognition, honoraria, and assistance to photographers as they grow into different stages of their careers.