My mother carried her camera everywhere we went. I remember the smell of the dark room on her and the nights spent editing. Years later, I met my maternal grandmother and for first time I opened the album that my mother sent her when I was a kid. She wanted to document her life in Colombia and show it to her family back in the United States.  My mother built the bridge that I crossed to meet her world, a bridge that disappeared when she died when I was  nine years old. Twentyfive years later, through that album, she managed to send d her life into the future: a gift of her life.

I grew up wanting to be like her, the first time that I held my own camera  in my hands my heart stopped; it was heavy and  felt like magic. But instead of pointing to her world,  I found it focused on myself.  In my self-portraits I looked into my own eyes and discovered the pain of my life without her.    

My camera is always with me, through its lens magic happens, from color to pain, from shape to hope, from light to action  I am alive, creating relationships that  could never have existed without her. My body stops to watch:  the feeling of her eyes staring back, the deep blue of the river,  the blood of the animal that I am about to ingest,  the green of the defeated luchador’s costume, the she that is a he and a friend, the hidden colors of butterflies,  and the light of empty space.

Today I shape the  world using light, lenses, concepts, feelings, position,  shadows, motion, shapes, mystery, curiosity, color, lines, detail, perspective, symmetry to tell stories and to make friends.  

My camera is the bridge that I cross to meet my world.

1 PROFESIONAL EXPERIENCE

ABSOLUTE ART CREATIONS 2013-2020
A multimedia theatre troupe formed by five multidisciplinary artists from the visual and performing arts.
Amongs Children – Movie. Producer
Project Love. Movie Director
1-Puntos de Fuga.. Vanishing points Multimedia Theater. Asst. Director
2-Puntos de Fuga.. Vanishing points Multimedia Theater. Asst. Director
El sueno de la razón produce monstruos. Multimedia Theater. Stage Manager
El Entrecejo/The Brown Multimedia Theater. Multimedia
2009 Photovoice Workshop.
2006 Houston, Texas – Leisure Learning: Artist’s workshop.

2014
Stories of a Workforce: Celebrating the Centennial of the Houston Ship Channel
Presented in partnership with Houston Public Library (Group)
Art Crawl. Juried Selected. (Group)
AIG Latino Exhibition. (Group)
2012
Shooting Beauty (Group Show) Lucios.
Winged (Group Show) Alice in Wonderland. Zen Art Gallery
Shooting Beauty (Solos Show) Limas Salon Studio
Abstract Group Exhibition. Jomar Gallery.
2011
Capturando Belleza (Solo show) El boliche. Villavicencio. Colombia
Shooting Belleza (Solo Show) The Houston Museum of Natural Science. Houston TX
All is well: Series Kings (Latina Group Exhibition) Sor Juana y su Cruz. Talento Bilingue de Houston. Houston TX
Rafael Series Kings (Group Show) Politiqueer By voices Breaking Boundaries

TEATRO DE LOS SENTIDOS. THEATER OF THE SENSES. 1992-1998
A group of artists-researchers from various fields of knowledge and nationalities who have been working the field of sensory language dramaturgy within the framework of immersive theater.

El Hilo de Ariadna (Ariadna’s Thread) (Colombia, Spain, Wales, and France)
La Feria del Tiempo Vivo (live Time Festival). Iberoamerican Theater Festival of Bogotá
Oraculos (Oracles)Iberoamerican Theater Festival of Bogotá
Developed recruitment & training systems
Led workshops for the members of the theater troupe.
Lead coordinator of forty performers, set designers, scenographers, and stagehands for national & international tours of various theatrical works.
Organized local groups of twenty performers in each city in which the works were performed.
Created budget, scheduled rehearsals & work slots.
Researched the theatrical works to suit the needs of each individual society that hosted the event. Visual, Smell, Objects
Creation of Object and spaces under the play concept “Sculpting Penumbra”

1999 Icaro (Photography Group show) Universidad de los Andes, Bogota Colombia
1998 Chalk on the Streets Public Happening (Group). Bogotá Colombia
1997 Self- Portraits (Solo Show) Club del Meta. Villavicencio. Colombia
1996 Books and Tarots (Group Show) Exedra Art Gallery. Bogota Colombia
1996 White over white (Two person Show) Fundacion Social. Exhibition Room. Bogotá. Colombia
1992 Death (Group Show) About Conceptual Art. Universidad Javeriana. Sala de Exhibition Room Bogotá. Colombia

PRINT PUBLICATIONS
2015 Stories of a Workforce: Celebrating the Centennial of the Houston Ship Channel. (Photography)
2014 Amanecer del Tiempo. (Illustration)
2012 Queer Necropolitics. Killing me softly with your rights. (Photography)
2009 The Builder’s Journal. Central Texas Edition. San Antonio Architectures Gems. (Photography)
2007 Houston is worth it (Photography)

ONLINE PUBLICATIONS
2015 Asian New Year. Houston Arts Alliance Blog
http://www.creativecatalystblog.com/process/asiannewyear
2014 Houston Arts Alliance. Tumblr.
http://houstonartsalliance.tumblr.com/post/119456571551/photo-of-the-week-east-end-ramble-2014
2013 Voices of the Spirit. Houston Art Alliance Blog
http://www.creativecatalystblog.com/process/voicesofthespirit
2013 Culture Map. Houston. More than salsa: Concert series sets the record straight on Houston’s Latino community
http://tinyurl.com/plr5kn5

 

MURALS
2004 Hearth – Commission
1997 Sun- Commission Seguros Bolivar
1995 Surfing- Commission Seguros Bolivar

2 EDUCATION

1998 Los Andes University – Bogotá, Colombia – Bachelor of Fine Art.
1999 Universidad del Rosario – Bogotá, Colombia – Entrepreneurial Management.
Relevant coursework
2007-2008 San Antonio Community College:
Photography Image Composition,
Portrait Photography
Commercial Photography
Photographic Perceptual Design
2009
University of Texas – Austin: Photojournalism I
Southwest School of Art, San Antonio:
Digital Imaging
Design and printing

Loriana Espinel is a Colombian artist who often uses photography as her main artistic

medium, but who really just does whatever she has in her hearth. Working on different subjects

and media at the same time makes perfect sense to her, with different themes having each their

perfect moments in space and time without conflicting with each other. She has been a painter,

sketch artist, book illustrator, actress, digital artist, muralist, photojournalist, sculptor, conceptual

artist, jeweler, and filmmaker.

 

Loriana has lived in United States for the last 16 years in New York City, San Antonio

and Houston. She obtained her Bachelors in Fine Arts from the Universidad de los Andes

in Bogota, Colombia, and received additional training in photography at the San Antonio

Community College and the University of Texas at Austin. She worked, traveled and created

as part of El Hilo De Ariadna (Ariadne’s thread), a Colombian theater group that uses sensorial

language to define their performances.

 

Loriana has exhibited her art in the US and Colombia, including shows at the Houston

Museum of Natural Science Butterfly Center, Talento Bilingue de Houston and JoMar visions.

Her photographs have been published on magazines like The Builders Journal: Central Texas,

and books like Houston, It’s Worth It. One of her proudest works was illustrating Amanecer del

Tiempo, a poem book published by her father in Colombia. The Houston Arts Alliance included

one of her photos in the Folklife Photo exhibition, which is permanently housed at the Houston

Endowment.

 

Currently, Loriana works for the Houston Arts Alliance as a photographer in the

project “Stories of a Workforce: Celebrating the Centennial of the Houston Ship Channel”.

She likes the creative force behind a group, and is currently part of small group of visual

artists -Absolute Filmmakers, an experimental and creative collective of seriously committed

filmmakers. Loriana’s newest painting project uses Feuillet Dance notation system and

cartography language to create maps to visually narrate people’s stories and interactions.