Favianna Rodriguez
Favianna Rodriguez is an interdisciplinary artist and cultural strategist born and raised in Oakland, CA. Her work challenges entrenched myths and dominant cultural practices by centering joy, healing, and unapologetic self expression through exuberant colors, graphic patterns, and signature stylized iconography.
Print Suite
Sugar lift aquatint etchings with kozo and monoprint chine collé on Somerset paper
Printed by Nichol Markowitz • Published by Moonlight Press
Signed and numbered by the artist
Artist Bio
About the Process
"Nature has always been my greatest teacher. The last five years of collaboration with the Presidio National Park have deepened my appreciation for the intelligence of native flowers and what they offer our ecosystems. The coastal gumplant, the checker bloom, the cone bush, the beach strawberry, each of these plants has something to teach us. The way seaside daisies gather to form a protective layer, the way beach strawberries reach and spread across the land, these are lessons I carry into my studio and into my life as an artist and environmentalist. Flowers are models for interdependence. Without them, our ecological systems would collapse. They are what insects pollinate so that humans can be nourished.
In this series of etchings with Moonlight Press, I wanted to honor the connection between human beings and the natural world, so each print brings together a human element and a flower from the native California landscapes of our region. Working with master printer Nichol Markowitz allowed me to be expressive and playful with my mark-making while honoring the delicacy of these blooms. Etching is a beautiful medium for this work. It gives me the precision to capture something tender, and the freedom to let my strokes breathe."
- Favianna Rodriguez
Artist Bio
Artist Bio
About the Process
Favianna Rodriguez is an interdisciplinary artist and cultural strategist, born and raised in Oakland, California. Her art practice centers around the complex intersectional issues of migration, gender justice, climate change, racial equity, and sexual freedom. Rodriguez’s work challenges entrenched myths and dominant cultural practices by centering joy, healing, and unapologetic self expression through her use of exuberant colors, graphic patterns, and stylized subjects. Her signature mark-making embodies the perspective of a first-generation American influenced by her Afro-Latinx roots growing up in Oakland, California during the era of the war on drugs and the birth of Hip Hop.
Favianna has exhibited widely at galleries and Institutions including YBCA, The Oakland Museum of California, and BAMPFA. She has work included in the permanent collections of The Smithsonian, The Library of Congress, SFMoMA, The National Museum of Women in the Arts, Harvard University Fine Arts Library, The Hood Museum, and The RISD Museum among many others. Over the past decade, she has completed a number of large scale public art commissions with the City of San Francisco and the Presidio National Park.
In 2016, Favianna was awarded the Robert Rauschenberg Artist as Activist Fellowship for her work around immigrant detention and mass incarceration. In 2017, she received an Atlantic Fellowship for Racial Equity for her work around racial justice and climate change. In 2018, she received the SOROS Equality Fellowship for building the field of cultural organizing.
