About the Artist
Blanca Herrada (she/they) is a Queer, Mexican American Artist and Activist living and working in Lawrence, Kansas. In 2014 Blanca received a Bachelor of Fine Art with an emphasis in Painting and a minor in Art History from Emporia State University. Blanca enjoys working on large-scale oil paintings that they often fuse with mixed media to create contemporary pieces that combine traditional and new methods. Her work often focuses on her life experiences, frequently incorporating political themes or underlying meanings surrounding subjects like identity, familial ties, and unspoken feelings. Blanca enjoys working within the intersections of art and activism and is passionate about her community. In 2022, Blanca was chosen as one of 52 Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) arts and culture leaders selected for the inaugural National Leaders of Color Fellowship. In 2024, she was chosen for the 4th cycle of artEquity’s National BIPOC Leadership Circle Fellowship. Blanca enjoys working with diverse communities to spread her love for the arts and strives to make art spaces more accessible and welcoming to everyone.
Artist Statement
Blanca has an ongoing series titled Para Mi Gente // For My People. Her work focuses on the historical lack of representation of People of Color in art. For this series, Blanca takes works and compositions from well-known white artists and replaces their white subjects with their friends and family. This ongoing series combines a love for art history with a social commentary prioritizing People of Color. Blanca has combined traditional oil painting techniques with contemporary methods and created works with a graphic yet classical element.
Additionally, Blanca has a second series titled Estas Manos // These Hands, which focuses on the lives of hands. These intimate portraits of Queer BIPOC hands and the many spaces they function and interface in highlight the many talents and aspects of Living While Queer. Every subject in this series is a Queer BIPOC person Blanca knows personally, which ties into her familiar theme of centering BIPOC people in her work. Blanca strives to create spaces that facilitate conversations for Queer People to thrive and see the everyday but essential parts of our authentic lives represented.
Press
2022 – Core. Issue 7, December 2022, Brittany Noriega, Core Zine KC
2022 – 2022-23 National Leaders of Color Fellowship, Leaders of Color Network
2020 – Winter/Spring Catalog Features Work Lifting the Underrepresented, Andrea Albright, The Lawrence Arts Center
2019 – Lawrence Artist Celebrates People of Color, Cole Blaise and John McGrath, Behind the Mise En Scene, Flatland KC
2019 – How Artist Blanca Herrada Highlights People of Color, Vicky Diaz-Camacho, Broad Strokes for Flatland KC