Jackie Amézquita
Jackie Amézquita (b. 1985, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala) is a Los Angeles-based interdisciplinary artist whose work explores the relationships between land, memory, and identity across genealogies. Her practice is channeled through the fuse of biomaterials such as earth, masa, charcoal, and rain, treating them as active carriers of ancestral knowledge. Through installations, performances, and sculptures, Amézquita engages the ecological and spiritual dimensions of place, emphasizing impermanence, transformation, and interdependence among human and more-than-human worlds. Her work further explores movement, collective memory, adaptation, and regeneration, centering the transformative power of interconnection.
Amézquita received her M.F.A. from the University of California, Los Angeles in 2022 and her B.F.A. from Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA, in 2018. She has exhibited with The Hammer Museum, LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) CA, LAND (Los Angeles Nomadic Division) CA, 18th St Art Center CA, The Armory Center of the Arts CA, Vincent Price Art Museum CA, The Annenberg Space for Photography CA, Human Resources Los Angeles CA, MAD (Museum of Art and Design) NY. Amézquita is the recipient of the Mohn Public Recognition Award (2023), Mohn Land Award (2023), Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts Los Angeles Art Fund (2022), and National Performance Network Fund (2022). Her work is in the permanent collections of the Hammer Museum Los Angeles, CA and Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO. She has been featured in Art in America, Cultured, Flaunt, whitewall, Los Angeles Times, ARTnews, The Art Newspaper, LA. Weekly, hyperallergic, Walker Art Center magazine.
Jackie Amézquita exhibited in the Hammer Museum’s 2023 Made In LA 2023 - Acts of Living exhibition where her epic piece El suelo de nos alimenta consisting of 144 framed soil paintings won the Mohn Public Recognition Award and entered the permanent collection of the Hammer Museum.
Artist Instagram: @jackieamezquita
Selected Works
bajo el cielo sobre el mismo suelo (under the sky on the same land)
Soil source from the 1,951 mile border that connects the U.S and Mexico, corn masa, salt, cal (dehydrated lime), rain water, framed with copper
98 x 177 x 2 1/2 inches
2024
Oro Negro (Black Gold)
Soil source from Los Angeles neighborhoods, masa (corn dough), salt, and cal (limestone)
frame with copper
53 x 60 inches
2024
el SUDOR de mi GENTE (the SWEAT of my PEOPLE)
Triptych
Bananas incubated for nine months on copper
96 x 60 inches
2023
horizonte (horizon)
Earth, masa, fossil shell, and turmeric
24 x 18 inches
2024
Beyond the limits of confinement
Triptych
Produce from the Americas. Incubated between four to nine months on copper.
Dimensions 12 x 12 inches each
12 x 44 inches installed
2021-2022
Entre Nuevo Mexico y Chihuahua
(Between New Mexico and Chihuahua)
Triptych
Soil source between the border that connects the states of Arizona in the US, and Sonora Mexico, corn masa, salt, cal (dehydrated lime), rain water, framed with copper
12 x 44 x 2 1/4 inches
2024
un mundo etereo
(an ethereal world)
Earth, masa, rain water, fossil shell, and achiote
24 x 18 inches
2024
T’orot’ik k’aslemal (grain of life)
Diptych
Grapes, banana, tomato, lemon,nopal, apple,salt, incubated for six months on copper
28 x 18 inches installed
2022
navegando las veredas del despojo (navigating the paths of dispossession)
Triptych
Obsidian
7 1/2 x 8 inches each
7 1/2 x 23 x 8 inches installed
2024
Entre California y Baja California
(Between California and Baja California)
Triptych
Soil source between the border that connects the states of California in the US, and Baja California, Mexico; corn masa, salt, cal (dehydrated lime), rain water, framed with copper.
12 x 44 x 2 1/4 inches
2024
entre las nieblas (between the fogs)
Earth, masa, fossil shell, and pea flower
24 x 18 inches
2024
Trazando la linea (Tracing the line)
Quadriptych
Soil source between the border that connects the states of California, Arizona, New Mexico and Texas in the US, with the states of Baja California, Sonora, and Chihuahua Mexico; corn masa, salt, cal (dehydrated lime), rain water, framed with copper
12 x 84 x 2 1/4 inches
2024
Exhibitions
Fairs
