Arleene Correa Valencia, a DACA recipient and Bay Area artist, presents her debut solo exhibition "CÓDICE •• SOBREVIVIENDO A LA PERSECUCIÓN" at Fridman Gallery in Manhattan, on view through May 2. The show features large-scale acrylic and textile works on amate bark paper, including a 16-foot-long piece depicting border-crossing narratives. Valencia collaborates with her father, mother-in-law, and papermaker Jose Daniel Santos de la Puerta, and incorporates childhood letters that poignantly reflect family separation and undocumented life.
This exhibition matters because it offers a deeply personal, visual reckoning with the violence against immigrants under the Trump administration, framed through the lens of a DACA artist. Valencia's use of traditional Mesoamerican materials and collaborative family labor underscores how art can humanize complex political realities, while her own story—from cleaning houses to community college under California's AB 540—highlights systemic barriers faced by undocumented students. The show amplifies underrepresented voices in the contemporary art world and connects personal narrative to broader immigration debates.