Mia Duran seeks to represent herself and other women of color in strong and empowering paintings. In art history, women of color have very rarely been given agency over their image. By having ongoing conversations with her subjects, Duran works towards ensuring that these women feel they have a voice over their image, their bodies and their agency.
Focusing on women, Duran plays with the idea of ‘femininity’ and how it can be portrayed in traditional and nontraditional materials and interpretations of her subjects. While the main focus of her work is painting; weaving, sewing, crocheting and other crafts traditionally seen as women’s work is both rendered and used direct. Along side these ‘feminine’ materials, strong ‘male’ objects, many times phallic weapons such as knives, and jobs, such as painting, play with the complexity of her subjects.
Culture is another topic that is inseparable from the women being represented. The background of these women plays a subtle, but key part of the color palette, background and objects chosen.
Mia Duran was born into a strong Latino community in Fresno, Ca. She received her BFA in painting from the San Francisco Art Institute in 2014. She has lived in the greater New York Area since 2014.