Critic’s Statement

Artist, educator, and administrator, Imna Arroyo focuses on visualizing her identity.  As a woman of African, Hispanic and Taino descent, she has traveled to Africa and the Caribbean in order to better inform her teaching and her own work.  Her earlier explorations of the Goddess spoke to her identity as a woman. Her latest artwork explores the Middle Passage and the spirit of her ancestors, while other works of hers have explored the essence of the Santeria; Orishas who guide her work today.  Imna Arroyo is always able to extrude the heraldic aspects of her identity to create visualizations that challenge the viewer.

 Her art has also taken printmaking to a new level. In an age of mechanical reproduction, she replicates images on paper, silk or wax to create installations. She invites the viewer, turned participant, to experience the joys and the issues of heritage and identity. Whatever she pursues she becomes a role model and conveys a spirit, which she then visualizes in her art.

 Gail Gelburd, Ph.D.
Associate Professpr of Art History
Eastern Connecticut State University
February 2005