Ella Santos Photo.jpg
 

RAFAELA (Ella)SANTOS, ARTIST

I grew up in New York City, a Bronx girl. I am a Bronx girl to this day, which animates my career as a multi-faceted creator working across a variety of mediums for over ten years. Throughout my explorations, motifs of blackness have emerged to unite each piece. Blackness holds space in terms of both my cultural identity and the color itself, which maintains a committed presence throughout my paintings. This blackness persists series after series alongside my promise to create work that’s entirely myself, entirely vulnerable, and entirely present. Whether I’m painting an idyllic landscape or a gorgeous goddess woman, I distill this visceral vulnerability in a manner that is raw, honest, and entirely my own and therefore every collector takes a piece of my soul home with them. 

 

THE STUDIO SPACE AT
THE GREENHOUSE GALLERY 315
- BX, NYC

The Bronx, NY, a place I call home. My studio is part home, part studio and part gallery. It comprises of several rooms throughout the house which double as studio and exhibition space. I create in all of these spaces, each one a sanctuary and holds a special energy when I create.

 

ARTIST CV

Experience

  • 2016 – Present:
    SAGEUSA -Meditative Art and Wellness Instructor
    (LGBTQ Adults and Seniors, Bilingual)

  • 2010-Present Meditation Instructor

  • 2010 - 2016: FORDHAM-TREMONT CMHC Art Instructor

  • 2010 - 2015: FORDHAM-TREMONT CMHC Artistic Curator of Annual Art Exhibit

Education

  • Master’s level in Urban Sociology City College of New York

  • BA in Urban Legal Studies City College of New York

Selected Exhibitions

  • Black Like Me Solo Exhibit, Boricua College Museum - 2024, NY

  • Fro Your Information, Solo Exhibit - 2024, NY

  • Faces - 2023, OH

  • Hidden In Plain Site - 2023 OH

  • Seeing Red – 2022, OH

  • A Represent – 2021, Martha’s Vineyard

  • Figuratively Seeing - 2021, Martha’s Vineyard

  • A Spell for Living, Five Myles Gallery – 2020 , NY

  • Living in the Gray, Knowhere Art Gallery – 2020, Martha’s Vineyard

  • Woman To Woman - 2019 , NY

  • Inescapably Black Solo Exhibit, Boricua College Museum - 2019, NY

  • Cultural Diversity, X Gallery - 2018 , NY

  • W/o[man]hood, Solo Exhibit - 2018 , NY

  • Whimsical Winter Wonderland, Poe Park - 2017 , NY

  • Urbanscapes, Solo Exhibit – 2017, NY

  • An Urban Woman, Cooper Union - 2013 , NY

  • Finding Inspiration in the UrbanScape, Mural Project – 2013 , NY

Presentations

  • Silenced No More  https://doi.org/10.5070/S528154977 2022

  • Blur, Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association

  • Finding Inspiration in the UrbanScape, Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association - 2013

  • We: Connections to Nowhere, Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association - 2011

  • The Bronx’s Change for the Better? Or The Unhealthy Metamorphosis of My Beloved Bronx, xcpUrbanfeel – 2010 http://people.lib.ucdavis.edu/~davidm/xcpUrbanFeel/santos2.html

  • My Beloved Bronx, Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association - 2009

  • “106th Street and Me” Mid-Atlantic Popular/American Culture Association - 2008

Publications

  • Lemon Pieces and Other Black Latina Stories Essay - Captured by the City, Perspectives in Urban Culture Studies – 2013 https://www.cambridgescholars.com/resources/covers/9781443842891.jpg

  • 106th Street and Me, Urban Reinventors – 2009 http://www.urbanreinventors.net/3/santos.pdf

  • The Reluctant Businessman: I Am What You Perceive Me to Be Family Justice - 2007