Stephanie Santana (b. 1984, Los Angeles, CA) constructs mixed media textile works and fine print editions that explore interior worlds, mythologies, navigational tools and resistance strategies of African diasporic origins. Rooted in the responsive encounter with archival material while employing a range of printmaking, quilting and embroidery techniques, her practice spans time and geography with an interest in unearthing useful information and finding alternative spaces of knowledge and self-definition.
Recent exhibitions include solo presentation Ways of Knowing at The Print Center (2024), and group presentations The Power of Portraiture: Selections from the Department of Drawings and Prints at The Metropolitan Museum of Art (2022) and A Contemporary Black Matriarchal Lineage in Printmaking at Highpoint Center for Printmaking (2021). Santana has received artist fellowships from New York State Council on the Arts/New York Foundation for the Arts (NYSCA/NYFA), EFA Robert Blackburn Printmaking Workshop, and A.I.R. Gallery, as well as generous support from Windgate Foundation and Sustainable Arts Foundation. Her work is held in permanent collections such as the Philadelphia Museum of Art, Getty Research Institute, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Jordan Schnitzer Family Foundation and Janet Turner Print Museum. She has served as a visiting artist, panelist and guest lecturer at The bell hooks center, Rhode Island School of Design and SCAD Museum of Art, among others.
Santana is a founding member of printmaking collective Black Women of Print. She lives and works in New York.
