Avila Andrew

 For this week’s post I wanted to focus on fellow classmate Tadeo Spencer, and the artist he introduced to the class, Joanna Toruno. Joanna Toruno is a Salvadoran born, and community/self taught visual artist. She utilizes the ‘streets’ and other public spaces as a platform/gallery in which she displays and debuts her different artworks.Joanna has noted herself as being “inspired by the people that exist in public spaces. The  working class & immigrant Black & Brown communities are the beat of the heart of the streets”. She considers herself and her journey within art to be led by those who came before her, largely the ancestors, and elders from within her community. She believes, much like Nina Simone has stated, that the duty of an artist is to reflect the times. However, Toruno believes that its important to reflect the times and situations in which she finds herself in. 

Much of her art is influenced by being a product of displacement from Salvador at the age of ten. Growing up and witnessing the aftermath of the civil war in Salvador has not only influenced her sense and style of art, but also her identity as well. She has described her art as existing within the political public art sphere, but  also notes that she is not a voice for anyone, as no one is truly voiceless. Possibly hailing from her queer migrant lens, Toruno also believes in the possibility of reimagining new possibilities outside of the patriarchy (specifically, white cishetero) in which we can all collectively exist within our own set of truths and privileges. Joanna’s work seeks to inspire these notions for her viewers, by not only holding them in public spaces with readily available access, but also within the content of her work.