Rosalia Torres-Weiner
Year: 2019
Location: Mount
Rosalia Torres-Weiner is the artist and activist (or “ARTivist,” as she says) behind Red Calaca Studio. During END-to-END, the Charlotte artist was charged with transforming a wall on the side of the co-working space Hygge, which has five sites total across Charlotte. As with much of her electric and eclectic work, Torres-Weiner calls upon the iconography and motifs of her Mexican heritage when painting, with new details emerging in the contours of the faces and animals she depicts across a space. Scrawled in one corner of the work is a vital phrase to her practice, “You are exactly where you are meant to be.”
“I am compelled by stories of my culture, my experiences and all that surrounds me,” the artist has said. “My art is the vehicle where I can share those influences and stories. The bold, bright, vibrant colors that have become the staple of my art are part of the narrative where those stories take a voice and a stage of their own.”
Torres-Weiner is also known for the 24-foot “Red Calaca Mobile Art Studio,” also known as the “Art Truck,” a vessel she uses to bring art to oft-overlooked neighborhoods across the Charlotte area. It also made an appearance at Camp North End during the days leading up to the festival