Please join us for a talk and embroidery workshop with María Lucía (Lulu, or Lulú) Varona Borges, a Puerto Rican multidisciplinary textile artist. Varona Borges' art has been exhibited at The Whitney Museum of American Art (2022), Flux Factory (2019), and Bronx Art Space (2017) in New York, the Zona Maco art fair in Mexico City, and elsewhere. Her recent solo exhibitions include Justo ahora (2024) and LABOR DADA (2021), both at Embajada in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Lulú holds a bachelor’s degree in visual arts from the University of Puerto Rico (2020) and is an alumna of the Museo Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico’s Program of Independent Studies (2020).
For Lulu, embroidery constitutes a mode of storytelling as well as an intergenerational source of knowledge, having learned its techniques from her grandmother. Her cross-stitched works interweave narratives of anticolonial and antipatriarchal resistance that counteract the violences Puerto Ricans on the archipelago and across the diaspora encounter in their everyday lives. By materializing personal, alternative accounts of events in Puerto Rico’s recent political history, like the Verano del 19; ongoing crises like those of domestic violence and femicide; and natural disasters whose damage has been exacerbated due to the island's colonial status like Hurricane María, Lulú holds up a cloth mirror to “el pueblo” of Puerto Rico where they can see themselves as subjects—in a world where they are increasingly subjectified.
For the first hour, Lulú will share her experiences learning and developing her craft in Puerto Rico and beyond, cultivating solidarity through art, and the material intricacies of her cross-stitched stories. During the workshop portion of the event, attendees will have the opportunity to learn from Lulú and work collaboratively with her on an art piece. Lulu has previously hosted art-making events for different communities, such as the Open Embroidery Workshops at Flux Factory in Queens, that have brought people of different ages, life experiences, and creative know-how together.
