Leenda Bonilla

Born and raised in The Bronx with roots in Puerto Rico, her art-making practices reflect her urban/island background. Leenda develops projects that foster creative collaborations and support community development. Through her use of interdisciplinary artist and producer specializing in civic engagement and art-making practices. Her work explores the intersection of diasporic heritage, urban history, and social tropes, with a focus on reclaiming lost narratives from her Puerto Rican roots. Through diaristic projects and conceptual framings, Leenda elevates narratives of self and community, highlighting the complexities of gender, race, identity, and age in the urban scene.

As a creative, Leenda creates intimate installations and social practice works that explore. Her projects facilitate critical discourse and collective healing, highlighting Caribbean culture and history in urban environments. Notable Exhibitions and Recognitions, The Puffin Foundation (NJ), Art in Odd Places (NYC), New York Botanical Gardens (BX), AS220 (RI), El Barrio ArtSpace (NYC), The New Museum (NYC), The Bronx Museum of the Arts, El Taller Boricua (NYC), Bronxarts Space, MOLAA (LA). Her work has also been supported by Pepatián: Bronx Arts ColLABorative.

Leenda holds a Master's degree from the Pratt Institute and a BA from Manhattan University. She is an art grantee of the NALAC Leadership Institute/Arts Advocacy Program and has received awards and residencies, including the El Centro Artistic Research Resident Fellow and NALAC Fund for the Arts.

Artist Statement

MainLAND_Mix is the creative narrative of my experiences of being Puerto Rican in New York City. It reflects the continuous morphing of multilayered forms in which mediums appear unfixed and mutable. I’m interested working in the traditional functionality of the materials- photography, found objects, graphic design, assemblage) and in subsequently breaking away from these histories to repurpose each object from its originating purpose to ultimately produce  complex and layered patterns that express tides of culture, fashion, politics, feminism and fluidity to allude to a contemporary bicultural life between the isla and the city.