Liliana (LILOPHILIA) Adaluz Romero Segura is a graduate BA in Visual Arts; Graphic Design, of Pontificia Universidad Xaveriana at Bogota/Colombia. Masters in Printmaking at the Camberwell University of Arts.
Through her artistic career, she had an intense interest in black-feminist activism and the defence of endangered communities (LGBTQ+, the Refugee community, Women affected by domestic violence). Liliana's research focuses on the loss of memory built by the continuous simulation and imposition of a systematic white society, erasing a heritage of the contemporary black individual. Through different experiences and involvement inside London's black community, Latin women community and Colombian community, Liliana's definition of Black (black person) evolved into new meanings. Territory, history, class, and many other factors construct a flexible and unflexible shape of the word BLACK, winding up into the same conclusion:
BLACK is the rebellion against a social system that benefits inequity.
Inside the imagery of Liliana's artwork, there is a constant of the iconography. Text and typography handle an essential part in the composition of the image. Between letter, background, and figure. Tensions are created that gives this urgent and robust reaction to the viewer; as a bilingual person, Liliana presents posters in both languages. Spanish, her native language and English, the "global" language.
Black women's body is recurrent in Liliana's artwork. Black bodies have repeatedly been attacked, manipulated, exoticise and disowned. The recovery and empowering of this body transform it into a symbol of rebellion, hope, an opportunity to respond to that loss feeling of erasure and unidentification.
Identification and homage: Her activism is born from her context back in Bogota/Colombia, where racism and xenophobic are considered "evils from another land." As our eye points directly (and only to) the North American and European "paradise" our country corruption increase by the second, dismissing and silencing Latin people voice. One of her project branches portrays Colombia's social leaders who have lost their lives fighting against a government that has forsaken their people.
Her love for printmaking, focusing on screenprinting, leads her to use the posters format utilising references as classic Black Panter Graphic Designer Emory Douglas to the empowering black women: Betyer Saar, Barbara Jones-Hogu or tongue in cheek Kara Walker. For Liliana, posters relate and have a more considerable impact on the public. This format breaks the barrier between what is believe of unsophisticated art or high-quality art, as the process of printing can be complicated or simple and straightforward. Poster printing has a natural profusion due to the no need for actual professional space (referring to galleries or museums) but the simplicity and unofficial public visibility that the street offers. Their versatility in various context is carried through history through the political importance to promote cries for help, for a fight or for empathy that is asked to the public. Liliana true-hearted believes in the reproductivity that the print technique carries and how its element of conversation can awaken the viewer from the eternal slummer that this systemic racism has kept us.
Liliana started in her early stages as an entrepreneur in the artistic environment as an Art Director with the project BANG MAGAZINE, where she had the first-hand experience about the art business's rigour. Also, she worked next to the advertisement enterprise, DDB Latina, as a graphic designer producing campaigns for Claro and BBVA. She participated in renowned digital and screenprinting studios in London like Jealous Gallery studio, Panopus printing, and theprintspace where she worked next to experienced and qualified technicians, printmakers/artists and designers. It is worth mentioning her interdisciplinary work with political activists and artists in social projects like Quieto Pelo Tumaco, MAFAPO (Mothers of the Extrajudicially Killed) and foundations like Grupo la Semilla. Her artistic approach includes a variety of exhibitions in Latin America, New York and London, participating in REDIBUJANDO BOGOTA (2017) EMERGENTE (2017), SVA SUMMER COURSE(2017), FASHION SHOW LEZAPATIER (2018), POLVO SOMOS (2018), ART WHO (2018), CASA VALHALLA ART TRAIL (2018), ATKINSON GALLERY MA SHOW (2020), CSM ART TRAIL (2020) AFROCOLOMBIAN CELEBRATION MINISTRY OF CULTURE (2020) LONDON GRADS SAATCHI GALLERY (2020).
Thank you!