NADIA LIZ ESTELA

Nadia Liz Estela is an interdisciplinary artist born in the Dominican Republic and raised in Newark, NJ. She received her MFA from Montclair State University in 2018. Prior to that, she attended Rutgers University-Newark and Parsons at The New School for her undergraduate studies. 

Estela’s work examines how identity is constructed through migration and memory. Her mixed-media pieces, which often incorporate textile and sculptural elements, references the different layers of migration, including uncovering that which is often invisible. She keenly explores the aspects of life and society- its norms, morals, and indoctrinated labels that we know exist but do not acknowledge. It asks about the journeys that we have made both collectively and individually; how we navigate our social and cultural capital; how have we arrived here; what are the implications of our biases; how do we profit from those imbalances; and how do all these strata make a whole or keep it separate. Her work is the tableau where these contradictions visually exist on the same plane. 

Estela’s work has been exhibited in numerous museums and galleries including the Montclair Art Museum (Montclair, NJ), Luo Zhongli Art Museum (Chongqing, China), Torpedo Art Center (Alexandria, VA), and Agora Gallery and American Medium (New York, NY). 

In addition to her fine art practice, Estela is an educator. She teaches at the Montclair Art Museum, William Paterson University Galleries, and has taught at Montclair State University for the Department of Art and Design.

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