What inspired the Mercado series? Can you share how the series speaks about larger issues such as gentrification? 

The Mercado series stemmed from the Bodegon/Still-Life pieces. The ways objects tell stories about us as consumers. The “Mercado” bags were made for my first solo show in NY at Elizabeth Dee gallery in Harlem in 2018. The objects in the bags felt like soon to be relics of a community that had built up an economy in a pocket of uptown NY. I find it interesting when something becomes so ubiquitous such as the New York City bodega with its Dominican products and bodega cat that we have little to no inclination to document its origins or its everyday existence. The bags were a way to pay homage … of saying we were here but also to speak on how these products have shaped a Latinx community for better or worse.

Your hometown, New York City, has a huge influence on your work. Do you think the pandemic and the subsequent lockdown of the city will be reflected in future projects? 

I think the quarantine has been more of a reassertion that the concerns I was already tackling in the work (class, the politics of consumption) are pressing ones. Its continued effect on the city will def make its way in the work.

You recently exhibited at Sean Horton (presents) in 2019. How was your time in Dallas? 

I knew I’d be in the heartland of Pop art & Americana but more importantly a Latinx space. Sean is very tied to the community and had informed me of the Quinceañera stores that line the blocks where his gallery is located. I had the best time taking all that in. My brother is a musician and happened to be on tour with Alejandro Sanz in Dallas at the same time I was there. It was amazing to watch him play at Toyota Music Factory. 

What are you currently working on? 

I’m working on new sculptures for my first museum solo show at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield, CT opening in June. I want those to be a surprise so I won’t describe them. 

What have you been reading, watching, and listening to recently? 

Reading/Taking notes on: “The Culture of the Copy: Striking Likenesses. Unreasonable Facsimiles” by Hillel Schwartz. Watching: Umbrella Academy Season 2 and have to finish the Shia Labeouf movie “Honey Boy” which is pretty good so far. Listening to Vic Mirallas, Nick Hakim and No Name. 

about lucia hierro

Born in New York City, Lucia Hierro received a BFA from SUNY Purchase, New York, 2010, and a MFA from Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, 2013. Her work has been included in solo and group exhibitions at the Bronx Museum of the Art, New York; Sugar Hill Children's Museum of Art and Storytelling; New York; and Elizabeth Dee Gallery, New York; Casa Quién, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic; the Museum of the African Diaspora, San Francisco; Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles, Sean Horton (presents), Dallas, Texas; and most recently a solo show at Primary Projects, Miami, Florida. Residencies include Redbull Arts in Detroit, Michigan and the Bronx Museum of Art’s New York based Artist in the Market program. Her work is in the collections of JP Morgan Chase, New York; Centro Cultural Eduardo León Jimenes, Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic; Perez Art Museum, Miami; and the Rennie Collection, Vancouver, Canada. 

Hierro lives and works in New York.