Kilia Llano on Working with Community, Sketchbooks, and Following Your Own Voice - Ep 04
ON THIS EPISODE
This week on First Coat we have Kilia Llano, an artist based in the Dominican Republic. Kilia has done many murals around the world and for various art festivals and mural residencies including Voz de Vida in Columbia, Graniti Murales in Italy, and Beyond Walls in Massachusetts. She recently had a retrospective and is working on a community-based mural project. I spoke with Kilia about how she finally started doing murals in the street, how her Taíno and African roots influence her artwork, and what it’s like being a mom and an artist. You’ll learn about her sketchbook practice, how she works with youth to create murals, and her advice to follow your own voice.
Read the full transcript here.
This interview was recorded in June 2020.
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LINKS
Kilia’s Mural at La Colada in DC
One of Kilia’s community mural projects, Muralizar La Frontera
Kilia’s mural for Beyond Walls in Lynn, Massachusettes
Kilia’s retrospective, Aún recuerdo at Monumento a Montesino. Read a review by Listin Diario here.
Guest | Kilia Llano, Artist
Kilia Llano is a fine artist, muralist, illustrator and art teacher. She was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic in 1972. She studied Fine Arts and Illustration at Altos De Chavón School Of Design (1992) and also got a bachelor degree in Fine Arts and Illustration at Parsons School Of Design (1994), NY among others minor studies at Universitat De Barcelona (Art History) and Unibe University (Art Education) at Santo Domingo. She’s participated in several collective art shows and also five solo shows at Santo Domingo, Barcelona and Miami (Art Basel 2017); She’s worked with other fellows artists doing urban art at the streets of several cities and small communities in the Dominican Republic since 2012, where she’s done about 25 murals. She’s also participated as international guest artist at the Art festival “Voz de Vida” at the city of Pasto, Colombia, resident artist at Graniti Murales at Sicily, Italy and has done around 20 commissioned murals at the DR. In August 2018 she was, among other urban artists, invited to participate at Beyond Walls Lynn, in Boston, MA. She recently finished a huge project at the border of Dominican Republic and Haiti in which she created several murals with the young artist from communities in need.
Follow Kilia on Instagram (@kiliallano, #kiliallano) and check out her website. You can also find her on Facebook and LinkedIn.
Your Host | Stephanie Echeveste, CEO & Founder of Distill Creative
Stephanie Echeveste is an artist and art consultant based in Brooklyn, NYC.
Follow Stephanie on Instagram (@distillcreative or @stephanie_eche), Twitter (@stephanie_eche), YouTube (Distill Creative), LinkedIn, and check out her art website.
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