LAYQA NUNA YAWAR

CV


Portrait by Redens Desrosiers
Portrait by Simbarashe Cha
Portrait by Malaika Muindi

Visual Artist - Muralist - Educator


Biography

Layqa Nuna Yawar (b. 1984, Cuenca, Ecuador) is a multidisciplinary artist based in the unceded lands of the Lenni-Lenape, current-day Newark, New Jersey. His practice explores the intersection of migration, decolonization, and the reclamation of public space. Layqa treats the public square as both a canvas and a sanctuary, with his name itself—a self-constructed reclamation of his Kichwa-Kañari heritage—serving as a blueprint for his mission: to peel back the layers of colonial history and reveal the vibrant, subaltern history underneath.

Layqa is best known for his large-scale public commissions that transform architectural surfaces into monuments for silenced narratives. In 2023, he completed a landmark 350-foot mural for Newark Liberty International Airport’s Terminal A, a work that reimagines the airport as a site of invisible transit and labor. By elevating the portraits of everyday workers and migrants to a heroic scale, he challenges the traditional semiotics of power and the whitewashing of history.

His work has been exhibited and commissioned internationally, spanning projects in the Americas, Asia, and Europe. Recent institutional highlights include commissions for MoMA PS1, Public Art Fund, the United Nations’ World Food Program, and a residency with Monument Lab. Awards include a Moving Walls Fellowship from the Open Society Foundations, an Artistic Impact Award from the Newark Museum of Contemporary Art, and an Art Change Maker Award from the Visual Art Center of New Jersey. Layqa’s practice bridges the gap between the institution and the street, cementing his role as a vital voice in the global decolonization movement.

Artist Statement 

I am a contemporary image maker taking up the pictorial traditions of my indigenous, de-tribalized, and colonized ancestors. At the core, my practice asks: how do we publicly negotiate power, and what would the world look like without the historical erasure of voices like mine?

I make images in the form of collaborative, socially engaged public art, and I practice this opening up of authorship within my studio pieces as well, often developing ideas with models and subjects, and sharing in the profits from work sold. My speculative narratives reflect and amplify the struggles, resilience, and cultural identities of marginalized communities, including immigrants, indigenous peoples, and people of color living in the USA. Public art is my tool for engaging these themes and for practicing a decentering of the traditional canon in favor of radical subaltern narratives. It is a tenet of my work that collective action is more powerful than the oppressive forces that keep us down.

My work exists between the private and the public, between liberty and ownership, and between the past and the present. Materially, this means that my public art is informed by the context in which it exists, often rooted in history and research, while my studio work reclaims the practices such as Viceroyal painting (16th–18th centuries) and the contemporary diasporic experience of people like myself. These projects can take the form of murals on buildings around the world, installations in galleries and museums, community-centered workshops and skillshares, poster campaigns, or uncommissioned street art popping up in your neighborhood.











Email: studio (at) layqa (dot) info
Mail: PES Studios, 800 Broad St, #207
Newark, NJ 07102


b. Cuenca, Ecuador
Lives and works in unceded Lenape land (current day Newark, NJ) and Guapondeleg (current day Cuenca, Ecuador) 
Education
Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University, B.F.A. in Studio Art, 2007


Awards & Fellowships 2026 
Immigrant Artist Program (Mentor), NY  Foundation for the Arts, New York, NY, USA. 

2025 
Immigrant Artist Program (Mentor), NY  Foundation for the Arts, New York, NY, USA. 

2024 
After the Fire 2020 - 2024, MoMA PS1: An Experiment in Creative Ecologies, Queens, NY, USA.
NY Emmy Award for the segment "Layqa" produced by State of the Arts PBS. 

2023                     
Artistic Impact Award, Newark Museum of Contemporary Art, Newark, NJ, USA.
Art Change Maker Award, Visual Art Center of New Jersey, Summit, NJ, USA. 

2022  
Between the Future Past, Public Art Fund commission for the Newark Liberty International Airport and Munich Airport, Newark, NJ, USA.
                             
2020
Creative Catalyst Fund Fellowship, City of Newark, Newark, NJ, USA.

2019                     
Moving Walls 25 Fellowship, Open Society Foundations, New York, NY, USA.
Vanguard Conference Leader, Next City, Newark, NJ, USA.

2017   
Immigrant Artist Mentoring Program (Mentor), NY Foundation for the Arts, Newark, NJ, USA.

2016 
Creative Capital Development Blended Learning Program, Aferro Gallery, Newark, NJ, USA.

2015  
Reach Mentorship Program, City Without Walls, Newark, NJ, USA.




Solo Exhibitions2025 “The Voice of Anonymity” Project for Empty Space, Newark, NJ, USA.  

2019 “Counter / Public” Deep Space Gallery, Jersey City, NJ, USA.

2018 “Forever / Siempre” Space 1026, Philadelphia, PA, USA.

2017  “Duelo / Lucha” Club Cultural Matienzo, Buenos Aires, Argentina. 

Selected Group Exhibitions 2025
“The Living Room Gallery Series” Street Theory Gallery, Boston, MA, USA

2024
“Indigenous Approaches, Sustainable Futures” Stockton University Art Gallery, Galloway, NJ, USA.
“Arrivals / Departures East80West”, Gallery Bergen, Bergen Community College, Paramus, NJ, USA.

2022
“Becoming: The Cultivation of Identity through Migration”, Out Left Art, New York, NY, USA.
“Free Leonard Peltier Pop Up” The Clemente Center, New York, NY, USA.
“Savage”, Deep Space Gallery, Jersey City, NJ, USA.

2021
 “Urban Art New Jersey: On and Off the Streets”, Morris Museum, Morristown, NJ, USA.

2020
“Art + Tech: Perception, Access, Power Virtual Exhibition”, Newark Museum of Art, Newark, NJ.
“Brotherhood”, Casita Maria Center for Arts and Education, Bronx, NY.
“Expresiones Latinx”, Morris Arts Gallery, Morristown, NJ.

2019
“Moving Walls 25 / Another Way Home”, Open Society Foundations, New York, NY. 
“Andean Culture Alive in New Jersey”, The Newark Public Library, Newark, NJ.
“Portraits of Paul Robeson”, The Zimmerli Art Museum, New Brunswick, NJ.  

2018
 “Into Action: a Celebration of Community Power + Cultural Resistance”, Los Angeles, CA. 

2017 “Immigration Co / Lab”, Tribeca Film Institute, Brooklyn, NY. 
“Young New Yorkers Silent Art Auction V”, Young New Yorkers, New York, NY. 

2016
“The New Vanguard”, The Lancaster Museum of Art, Lancaster, CA. Curated by Thinkspace.
“Demystify, Destroy, Rebuild”, Gallery Aferro. Newark, NJ. Curated by the Museum of Impact. 
“Forbidden Fruit: Street Art in a National Park”, MOMAPS1, Fort Tilden, NY. 
“Believe / Become”, Urban Nation, Berlin, Germany. 
“LAX / ORD”, Vertical Gallery, Chicago, Il. Curated by Thinkspace.
“Censorship: The legacy of WPA art, Its messages and its impact”, Gateway Projects, Newark, NJ.  
“Brown Don't Drown”, 17 Frost Gallery, Brooklyn, NY. 
“Young New Yorkers Silent Art Auction IV”, A+E Studios, New York, NY. 
“Good Food”, Index Art Center, Newark, NJ. 



Residencies2025                    
Artist in Residence 2023 - 2025,  Project For Empty Space, Newark, NJ, USA.

2023                    
No Lugar Residency, No Lugar Arte Contemporáneo, Quito, Ecuador.

2020 
Revolution NJ: Art + History Research Residency. Monument Lab, Newark, NJ, USA

2019                    
Moving Walls 25 Fellowship. Open Society Foundations, New York, NY, USA.
Vanguard Conference Leader. Next City, Newark, NJ, USA.

2018 
Brodsky Center Residency. The Brodsky Center, New Brunswick, NJ, USA.

2017  
Matienschon Residency. Club Cultural Matienzo, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

2012
 Printshop Keyholder Residency. Lower East Side Printshop, New York, NY, USA.



Selected Mural Projects2025
“A Canvas of Culture” at the Sarah Roberts Elementary, Boston, MA, USA.
“I am Making the Road / Caminando Juntos” at Make the Road HQ, Queens, NY, USA.

2024
“After the Fire” 2020 - 2025, MoMA PS1, Queens, NY, USA.
“Colors of my City” for The New York Foundling, Brooklyn, NY, USA.
“Moving Memory” for the City of Newark, Newark, NJ, USA. 

2022
“Between the Future Past”, Newark Liberty International Airport, Newark, NJ, USA.
“What Grows? (Prelude to After the Fire)” MoMA PS1, Queens, NY, USA.

2021
“Futurología Puruhá”, Festival NUMU, Riobamba, Ecuador.
“S.T.E.A.M. Dreams” Atlantic City Arts Foundation, Atlantic City, NJ, USA. 

2020
“This Guiding Light” City of Newark Arts and Culture, Newark, NJ.
“The Paul Robeson Paean” Paul Robeson Galleries at Rutgers University, Newark, NJ.

2019
“Magnitude and Bond”, Four Corners Public Art, Newark, NJ.
“Familial Portal”, Hightstown Cultural Arts Commission, Hightstown, NJ.
“Migrant Imaginary” Philadelphia Mural Arts, Philadelphia, PA.
“We Carry the Distance Migrated by our Mothers”, Ford Foundation, New York, NY.
“Legacy”, Great Oaks Legacy High School, Newark, NJ.

2018
“Esta es tu casa / We belong”, Center for Latino Arts & Culture at Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ.
“Survivor Love Letter”, O+ Festival, Kingston, NY 
“Esperanza Neighborhood Project”, CoLab Arts, New Brunswick, NJ
“Art in Active Spaces”, Casita Maria and the NYC Health Department, Bronx, NY

2017
“Festival Indomita”, Zamora, Ecuador. 
“Fiesta de Colores”, Bahia, Ecuador.

2016
“ConectArte”, United Nations’ World Food Programme and ConectArte, San Salvador, El Salvador.
“Latido Americano”. Asuncion, Paraguay. 
“Gateways to Newark: Portraits”, Newark Downtown District, Newark, USA. 
“Color Libre”, San Juan, Puerto Rico        
Publications“Art in Place: The Ford Foundation Collection” A collection catalog by the Ford Foundation, 2025

“The Road to Sanctuary: Building Power and Community in Philadelphia.” Amada Armenta, Caitlin Barry and Abel Rodríguez, Philadelphia, Fortress Academic, 2022.

“Another Way Home”, Exhibition catalog, Open Society Foundations, Exhibition Catalog, 2019.

“Wall Therapy RX”, The Synthesis Collaborative, 2016. 

“Outdoor Gallery New York City”, Gingko Press, 2014. Selected Press & Interviews“La Voz del Anonimato/The Voice of Anonymity (Exhibition Review)” The North American Congress on Latin America Report, 2025.

“Layqa” State of the Arts NJ by PBS, 2023.

“Interview with Layqa Nuna Yawar” The Newarker, 2023.

“Art Tells New Jersey Stories at Newark’s New Terminal A” The New York Times, 2022.

“Artists Make New York: Layqa Nuna Yawar” MoMA PS1, 2022.

“Newark Artists, Thriving Amid Crisis and Catharsis” The New York Times, 2020.

“Refugees and Migrants Tell Their Own Stories Through Photographs” The New York Times, 2018.

“Migration & Murals with Layqa Nuna Yawar”, WBGO Radio, 2018.

“New Mural for Conectarte & United Nations World Food Programme in San Salvador”, BSA, 2017.
“Newark artist LNY creates murals around the world and at home”, The Star Ledger, 2014.







Last Updated 03.19.26