Damariz Damken
b. (1997) McAllen, TX
Damariz Damken is a multidisciplinary artivist born and raised on the US-Mexico border between Reynosa, Tamaulipas, and McAllen, Texas. Her work explores border imaginaries and identity to subvert constructs of political dominance, dispossession, and violence to heal and reclaim our relationship to the occupied territories of Turtle Island. Her performance work explores rituals of mourning, purging, and meditation as healing practices. She uses her childhood and family experiences growing up on the border as reference points to deepen her understanding of personal and collective identity, embodied history, and our relationship to our motherlands. Through the use of space, natural elements, movement, and the body, she raises questions on belonging, displacement, erasure, memory, and ancestry. Her work seeks to challenge the boundaries between physical spaces and the ancestral legacies we carry. Damken navigates psycho-geographic connections between memory, Spirit, and the Land to transmute trauma and resignify La Frontera (the border) as a sanctuary and ancestrally sacred territory.
Education
B.A. Latin American Studies Honors, Global Liberal Studies concentration in Politics, Rights, and Development, New York University, (2019)
Awards & Grants
Poets & Writers Reading and Workshop Grant, (2024)
Foundation for Contemporary Art Emergency Grant, (2022)
Schwarzbach Global Impact Award, New York University, (2019)
Zake Morgan Memorial Award for Excellence and Originality in an Honors Thesis, New York University, (2019)
Social Impact Grant, New York University, (2019)
NetaRGV Visualize your Resistance Artist Grant, (2018)
Exhibitions
Trenzadas, Museo Cerrito de la Independencia, Zitacuaro, Michoacan, Mexico (2025)
[Nada] Que Declarar- Text 2 Speech Exhibition Series, curated by Fadl Fakhouri, Hercules Art Studios, New York City, NY (2024)
Llévame al Río - Rebirth of a Body Exhibition, organized by Argentina Performance Art in collaboration with the New York Latin American Art Triennial (NYLAAT), curated by Natacha Voliakovsky, Governors Island New York City, NY. (2024)
Alma de Barro - CPR Open Studios, Center for Performance Research, New York City, NY. (2022)
Trenzadas, Center for Performance Research, New York City, NY. (2022)
Endless Blue Poetry Salon Vol. 6, Bowery Poetry Club, New York City, NY. (2022)
No Me Pongan en lo Oscuro (Do Not Bury Me in Darkness) Action No. 3 with Cuquita the Cuban Doll, Museum of Modern Art, New York City, NY. (2020)
In Honor of Our Roots Residency, Hosted by RadicalLoveConsciousness, Langston Hughes House, New York City, NY. (2019)
EmergeNYC 2019 Cohort Works in Progress Showcase, Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, Abrons Art Center, New York City, NY. (2019)
Sin Fronteras I, Exhibition + Fundraiser with ArtHoe Collective, Spicy Zine & Yellow Jackets Collective, 8 Ball Community, New York City, NY. (2018)
Curation & Direction
Rebirth of a Body - Artists in Conversation, Artist Talk Moderator, New York Latin American Arts Triennial in collaboration with Argentina Performance Art curated by Natacha Voliakovsky, Governor's Island, NY. (2024)
Día de Muertas, Organizer, Hosted by Feminist Heights & Undocumented Women's Fund, The People's Forum, New York City, NY (2021)
Encuentro en la Frontera Bi-National Art + Activism Festival, Director, Rio Grande Valley, TX. (2019)
Building Bridges of Solidarity Exhibition, Director/Co-Curator, Carlotta K. Petrina Cultural Arts Center, Brownsville, TX. (2019)
Publications
Argentina Performance Art, "SUCESO: Seis artistas mujeres exploran el proceso de migrar a través del cuerpo" (2024)
Esferas Issue 9. Trazar el Archivo, "The Art of Resistance" (2019)
Performance is Alive, "Layers of Erasure" (2019)
Texas Monthly, "We Exist, We Have Voices, We Have Stories’: A New Festival Confronts the Borderland’s Complexity" (2019)
Fronteriz@ 360 Podcast, "Art, Activism and La Llorona "(2019)
The Rational Creature Vol. 5 "The Displacement Issue" (2019)
The Ink NYC, "Protestors March in Solidarity with Migrant Caravan" (2018)
Contact
email: tormentaenllamas97@gmail.com
