TIERRA FUTURA

TIERRA FUTURA: Boricua Land Futures, a solo exhibition of artist Shey Rivera Ríos and group exhibition of 22 Boricua artists from the archipelago and its diasporas.

On view March 5-29, 2025 | Opening Event: Thurs March 5, 6-8pm | WaterFire Arts Center, 475 Valley Street, Providence, RI

Tierra Futura brings together Boricua (Puerto Rican) artists from the archipelago of Borikén and its diasporas across the U.S. whose practices imagine, remember, and materialize Boricua futurity rooted in ancestral knowledge and cultural sovereignty. These works contain stories of land-based memory, Boricua rural identity, eco-feminisms, relationship between body and land, queer Boricua joy, cultural rituals, and tributes to significant artistic, political, and familial ancestors. Many of the artists are also founders and leaders of alternative art spaces, land sovereignty projects, and other cultural initiatives that restore and nourish culture and connection to ancestral practices. TIERRA FUTURA is cultural ritual that becomes art practice, and invites us to contemplate what it means to build abundant diasporic futures. 

Curated by: Shey Rivera Ríos, Studio Loba. Co-Curatorial and Logistics Team: Anabel Vázquez Rodríguez and Ruchika Nambiar. 

Supported by: Interlace Project Fund, RISD SPUR Fund, and WaterFire Arts Center. 

Artists:

Adaira Rojas Santana & Edalys González Clemente

Angélica Rivera Reyes

Anabel Vázquez Rodríguez

Brenda Torres-Figueroa

Candida González

Colectivo Moriviví

Damaris Cruz

Elisa Dore

Grechel Rosado

Jo Cosme

Lares Feliciano

Leenda Bonilla

Lilliam Nieves

Linda Fernández

Lydia Pérez Nieves

Mariana Ramos Ortiz

Michelle Falcón Fontánez

Rosa Colón

Santi Pérez García

Yolanda Velázquez-Vélez

Vero Rivera