The Great History's GoddessOil on Canvas, 40” x 72”, 2016. $3000

Art for love, peace and joy

Tanya Torres is a Puerto Rican artist and writer living and working in New York City. After completing a B.A. in Art Education at the City College of New York, she was offered a scholarship to complete her M.F.A. at the same institution.

In 2000 she created the artistic space Mixta Gallery in El Barrio, East Harlem, the community where she has lived since 1997.

Her artwork has been presented at the United Nations Organization, the Center for Puerto Rican Studies Library, the Museum of the 19th Century Dominican Family in Santo Domingo (Dominican Republic), the Porta Coeli Museum of the Institute of Puerto Rican Culture), and the Prague Congress Centre in the Czech Republic, among other cultural institutions. She has published the handmade poetry books Caguana (1994), Laberinto (1995), Bestiario mío (2001), I Can Certainly Survive (2002), Cuerpo de batalla/Battle Body(2004), and Sagrario (Shrine) (2007). In 2010, she published a handmade, handwritten edition of the book Canción de la Magdalena with a song by Raquel Z. Rivera. In 2007, she published Cuervo de paz: Repercusiones de la batalla (Peace Body: The Aftermath of the Battle) about life after cancer. In 20011, she published an edition of 50 miniature books of Destellos de Sofía, a book of mystical poetry, and a pendant miniature book edition with the English translation, Sophia's Light in 2014.

In 2002, El Diario/La Prensa selected her as one of the 50 Women of the Year. In 2003, the Center for Puerto Rican Studies at Hunter College (NY) invited her to be part of the project “Puerto Rican Writers: History and Context”, which provides a space in the general archive to preserve and share her documents.

Tanya has read stories for children at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City, and taken her projects and exhibitions to places such as Batey Palmarejo in Dominican Republic and Comunidades Especiales in Puerto Rico.  From 2007-2010, she was Artist-in-Residence at P.S. 57 in East Harlem, New York City, where she created 3 mosaic murals and 6 poetry murals. She also created a series of digital paintings commissioned by the East Harlem Bilingual Head Start, and inspired by its mission to create healthy eating habits in young children and their families. The head start also commissioned and houses several of her mosaics. In 2012, her exhibition Heaven and Earth traveled to Prague and was exhibited at the Prague Congress Centre.

Tanya's ongoing art project Song of the Magdalene, with author and musician Raquel Z. Rivera, celebrates Mary Magdalene, the Biblical character and all other expressions of this symbol of feminine divinity, through research and creative actions since 2005. It was presented at St. Mark’s Church in the Lower East Side of New York in 2010,and has traveled across the United States and Puerto Rico.

Tanya Torres

Sunflower SpiritOil on Canvas, 72” x 36”, 2016. $3000