Member Spotlight: Elizabeth Acevedo

Download the Audio Interview Here

Olivia Sherman
This is Olivia Sherman with the New Media Caucus interviewing Elizabeth Acevedo.
Who are you, and where are you located?

Elizabeth Acevedo
I'm Elizabeth, and currently I'm in New Jersey, North New Jersey.

Olivia Sherman
What brought you here?

Elizabeth Acevedo
Originally, my folks. We were living in Tennessee. I went to high school in Tennessee. Eventually, I went to New York City for university- I got into NYU. So, a lot of the work that I've been doing has been based in New York City.

Olivia Sherman
So, what does new media mean to you?

Elizabeth Acevedo
New media to me means experimenting outside of what you're usually comfortable with in art. So, for me, a lot of the work that I was doing, say, back in my high school years was a lot of graphic design and a lot of traditional art. And so new media has been sort of going beyond what I thought was art. So, you know, playing around with like the physical, getting into 3D printing, and sort of finding ways to create artwork with technology. That’s what I view new media as of now.

Olivia Sherman
Could you identify any factors that led to the development of your style and use of new media rather than traditional media?

Elizabeth Acevedo
Oh yeah, of course. I feel like with my major, specifically, interactive media arts, we're very much encouraged to find that intersectionality between technology and art. And I was not a coding person. I had to learn code for my major. So I really had to look beyond what I thought art could be. Before, I worked mainly with charcoal, pencil, paint and so now in interactive media art, it's we're very much encouraged to make artwork that's interactive or that sort of learns new ways to create art with technology. Very much within my program we have to find ways to sort of incorporate new technology in our art practices.

Olivia Sherman
So, what inspires your work?

Elizabeth Acevedo
I think being in the city, you're very much exposed to new artists and sort of new ways of doing things. So, I'm very much inspired. [By the city]. I mean, I think even just like being on my floor at NYU (the IMA floor is what they call it) and seeing everyone sort of create these interesting contraptions, almost like creating machines. Building things. It's always incredible to see what everyone's working on and so I'm very much inspired by the people within my program, but also seeing what people are doing in the city. Or even like pop ups, or like installation art that I see. I would say as of like I'm very much inspired by art that plays with like a physical space.

Olivia Sherman
Interesting. I read your bio in your exhibition writeup and you mentioned that you have a lot of themes of sacred and memory. Could you talk a little bit about the work in your exhibition?

Elizabeth Acevedo
Yeah, of course. When I got into sort of making artwork that is physical and fabrication practices, a lot of the artwork that I found myself making or gravitating towards is sort of based in themes of maximalism. Things that are the opposite of minimalism is what I would say. I sort of arrived at that theme because of Mexican art or art movement, taking what you already have and making something out of that.
Which is also what people sort of view as like maximalist, like having all these different decorative factors. I was thinking like from my own life sort of like growing up with sort of like the Rasquache movement. You know, everything being like super decorative, almost kind of gaudy in the way that's decorative.
So I sort of like gained inspiration from like the kind of artwork that I was seeing in my childhood, or what I would consider artwork now.
So, playing upon memory, I think the inspiration I had for one of my pieces was sort of looking at like memorial altars. Looking at things within my own childhood and my cultural upbringing.

Olivia Sherman
So what does receiving this award mean to you?

Elizabeth Acevedo
Receiving this award, I think it's been very- seeing my work as something that could be considered like new media-I'm very honored.
I think the fact that I was so based in more traditional art forms and seeing my journey of how I've experimented beyond just like the mediums I was comfortable with, I'm very proud of, how much I’ve branched out.
I feel like receiving that has sort of confirmed a bit that I'm branching out and continuing to work with different art mediums.

Olivia Sherman
Do you have any current projects that you want to share with us?

Elizabeth Acevedo
At the moment, I have worked with a couple minor fabrication pieces for like some finals and so I'd have to have to look through the painful list of my Google Drive and my hard drive. Yeah, for sure I have some fabrication pieces that I could show off.

Olivia Sherman
Cool. Where can people see your work? Do you have a website or like an Instagram page that I can link?

Elizabeth Acevedo
I do have a website, although it definitely needs to be updated.
https://elizabethaacevedo.com/

Olivia Sherman
Perfect. OK. Thank you so much for taking the time out of your day to meet with me.

Elizabeth Acevedo
Oh yeah, of course. Thank you.