Iliana Emilia García

Iliana Emilia García was born into a family of poets, writers, and artists in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. She is the sister of artist Scherezade García.[5] As a child, she took art lessons with Elías Delgado and Nidia Serra, participating in international children art competitions in China and Brazil. A classically trained pianist, she attended the National Conservatory of Music in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.[6]

In 1989, García graduated summa cum laude with an AAS degree from Altos de Chavón School of Design in La Romana, Dominican Republic where she studied under Rafaél Álvarez, Carlos Montesino, and Russell Christopherson. She was awarded the Ruth Vanderpool Scholarship to attend Parsons School of Design in New York where she received a BFA in Communication Design in 1991.[7] She settled permanently in New York in 1989.

• Art in Embassies U.S. Department of State, Madrid, Spain[8]

• Surf Point Foundation Residency, York, Maine, 2022.[9]
• BRIC/Goya Residency, La Romana, Dominican Republic, 2018.[10]
• Aljira Emerge 8, A Career Management and Exhibition Program for Emerging Artists.[11]

• Fresh Produce, 2000 Early on Holland Cotter spotted her using still-life themes of nourishment, consumption and decay in a group show in Harlem. "In a crisp, lucid installation, Iliana Emilia turns bread and water into a yeasty version of stripped-down Donald Judd furniture."[12]
• Almas Transparentes, 2001 Early small scale charcoal on paper, before her installation pieces.[13]
• Story Piles, 2012 Installation of chairs hung from the ceiling, some with neon strings representing people and events that pass through our lives.[14] the histories of individual people, the resistance against change.[15]
• The Pursuit of Happiness/Buscando Felicidad, 2014 This installation, made with wood, rope, metal hooks, and silkscreen features abstracted chairs against the wall, produces a vision of movement, migration, memories, and history.[16]
• Yo. Aquí, Allá En Todas Partes/ I. Here, There and Everywhere, 2015 Chairs as a symbol of tradition, craftsmanship, and culture, specifically that of Dominican Republic.[17] representing the emotional history of objects.[18]
• Historias acumuladas, 2015 This is a three part series of works made with acrylic, ink, charcoal, and pencil on canvas was a clear inspiration for I. Here, There and Everywhere also of that year.[19]
• The Sage and the Dreamer, 2018. In this site-specific installation at BRIC Gallery,[20] 40 cabilma and oak wood and guano woven chairs are arranged in the form of a tree enveloping, rising and turning as branches towards the ceiling.[21] As these hand-made woven chairs have become scarce in the Dominican Republic for about a decade, García commissioned a retired chair maker to build the chairs for the exhibition.[22][23]

• 1996: To Get to Heaven/Para llegar al cielo, Galería Fundación de Arte Nouveau, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic[24]
• 2016: La razón/el objeto/la palabra, The Reason/The Object/The Word, Galería ASR Contemporáneo, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic[25]
• 2019: Visual Memory: Home + Place, iliana emilia García + Scherezade García, Art Museum of the Americas, Washington, D.C.[26]
• 2022: Memory Keepers / Albaceas de la Memoria, William Paterson University, Wayne, New Jersey[27]
• 2023: Agua Firme, University of Pittsburgh Art Galleries, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania[28]

• Anreus, Alejandro. "The Language of Drawing, of Hearts, Chairs and Boats: A Conversation with iliana emilia García." In iliana emilia Garcia: The Reason/The Object/The Word, edited by Olga U. Herrera. Washington, D.C.: Art Museum of the Americas, 2020, pp. 40–44.
• Bazzano-Nelson, Florencia. “Preparing for Our America: Imagining Migration, iliana emilia garcia’s Chairs.” Eye Level, Smithsonian American Art Museum Blog, August 15, 2013.
• Cotter, Holland. “Art in Review: Fresh Produce.” The New York Times, May 12, 2000.
• Cotter, Holland. “A New Latino Essence: Remixed and Redistilled.” The New York Times, Nov. 28, 2003.
• Cotter, Holland. “Latino Art, and Beyond Category.” The New York Times, September 2, 2005
• Cullen, Deborah. "In These Days." In The S-Files 2005 (The Selected Files). Exh. cat. New York: El Museo del Barrio, 2005.
• Dardashti, Abigail Lapin, et al. Bordering the Imaginary: Art from the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Their Diasporas. Exh. cat. Brooklyn, New York: BRIC, 2018.
• Edgecombe, Wallace I. Foreword. In One Last Sitting: ‘Apostolado’ of What I Have Always Had Present. Exh. Cat. The Hostos Center for the Arts and Culture and Creative Art Source, 2000.
• Gómez Jorge, Paula. "The Presence of An Absence: Artifices of Memory." In iliana emilia Garcia: The Reason/The Object/The Word, edited by Olga U. Herrera. Washington, D.C.: Art Museum of the Americas, 2020, pp. 16–19.
• Herrera, Olga U. ed. iliana emilia Garcia: The Reason/The Object/The Word. Washington, D.C.: Art Museum of the Americas, 2020.
• Herrera, Olga U. "iliana emilia García and Neo-Pop Art: [Re]Visiting One Last Supper." In iliana emilia Garcia: The Reason/The Object/The Word, edited by Olga U. Herrera. Washington, D.C.: Art Museum of the Americas, 2020, pp. 27–37.
• Perry, Ana Cristina. "iliana emilia García: Emotional History and the Development of Symbolic Memory." In iliana emilia Garcia: The Reason/The Object/The Word, edited by Olga U. Herrera. Washington, D.C.: Art Museum of the Americas, 2020, pp. 20–26.
• “Queenie: Selected Artworks by Female Artists from El Museo Del Barrio's Collection.” New York: Hunter East Harlem Gallery.
• Ramos, E. Carmen. "iliana emilia garcía." In Our America: The Latino Presence in American Art. Exh. cat. Washington D.C.: Smithsonian American Art Museum, 2013, pp. 162–165.
• Sullivan, Edward J. "Immutable Fragility." In iliana emilia: Chosen Hearts. Exh. cat. New York: Howard Scott Gallery, 2001.
• Zimmer, William. Art in review, New York Times, Bronx edition, 1991.

• Official website
• Archives of American Art, Smithsonian Institution
• Storytelling with Chairs, BRIC TV