bio

b. 1992, Nuevo Laredo, Mexico

Karla Rosas (ella/she/they) is a visual artist and language justice worker based in New Orleans. Born in Mexico but raised in Southeastern Louisiana, Karla’s work challenges conventional depictions of migration by exploring (im)migrant experiences beyond linear narratives, documentation, and borders. Karla’s art practice includes painting, illustration, soft sculpture, assemblage, and embroidery. 

Karla’s work is a part of various collections, including the Hood Museum and UC San Diego’s Undocumented Student Center. Their illustrations have been featured in various publications including The L.A. Times’ “Latinx Files,” United We Dream's “Immigrant Made” zine, and Antigravity Magazine’s tarot column. Karla received the Define American Immigrant Artist Fellowship in 2019 and served as an Artist-in-Residence at the Joan Mitchell Center in Fall/Winter 2022. They are a member of Antenna Collective, and a founding member of Colectiva Manos, a collective of Latine artists in New Orleans.

statement

The materials and techniques I use reflect the lineages and landscapes I am from, both in Southeastern Louisiana and Mexico. My teachers are my family, community, and other people who do not consider themselves artists yet make beautiful things from ordinary materials — seamstresses, embroiderers, plant nurturers, basket weavers, carpenters, and altar dressers. My teachers practice in mundane spaces: the kitchen table, the living room, the field, the street.

Many of my pieces incorporate words or phrases, often in Spanish, in a fragmented manner. Similarly, the materials and figures in my work are often in states of destruction or fragmentation. I enjoy creating expressions and figures without an obvious beginning or end, inviting the viewer to create meaning based on their connection to the language(s) represented. For me, this reflects the way that memories become fragmented and even transform in relationship with the world around us. Instead of “remembrance,” or “remembering,” I am interested in the ways we as immigrants “re-member” the aspects of being that have been disrupted by colonization and borders — our intimate experiences of language, the gendered body, family history, the natural world, art-making, and spiritual transcendence.