Bolivian-American artist Donna Huanca (b. 1980, Chicago, IL) creates work that destabilizes the male gaze while exploring femme and Indigenous, specifically Andean, narratives and mark-making. Huanca’s installations encompass painting, sculpture, and live performance, and are fundamentally site specific. Her art is deeply invested in ritual practice, both Bolivian as well as ritual at large as a means for transcendence, meditation, and transformation. For her exhibition at the Henry, the artist plans to create an architecturally immersive environment, resembling a labyrinth or a forest, and offering a meditative journey of discovery for the viewer through “private spaces” for viewing paintings, video, and sculpture. The Henry and the artist will work with a number of community organizations to identify performers for the exhibition films and to launch dialogue on its themes, including gender, Indigeneity, sexuality, and ritual.

Huanca’s exhibition will be the first commissioned work supported by the Richard E. and Jane Lang Davis New Works Fund.