Artist Statement / About:

I dedicate myself to the exploration of the body, in its broadest definition, and its preoccupations. Through the language of the body, I explore representations and discourses regarding the corporeal, the collective, bodies of water and land, and non human bodies; all whilst speculating alternatives through investigations of process as care, physical and conceptual waste, conditions conducive to transformation, parallel temporalities, intersections of science and mysticism, hybridity, and interspecies relationships. I move within these places of inquiry primarily through the use of clay. Archived data, discarded materials, fibers, sound, water, and found earth materials are introduced as augmenting objects and materials. My work is supported by research on forms, myths, and practices of Latinx communities and indigenous america in particularly Tainos of the Caribbean; material chemistry; co experience and performance of the body as described by writers such as Jules Sturm, Elainne Scarry and queer and trans scholars and collectives to include Maria Lugones, Laboria Cuboniks, Baedan, and others; as well as my own personal observations and writing. 

Miguel Enrique Lastra (He/Him) is a queer, Puerto Rican sculptor and ceramist. His work uses a mixture of materials to include ceramics, fibers, audio, and ice to expand the array, orientations, and augmentations of celebrated and ceremonious bodies depicted in space. He is especially interested in the possibility, multiplicity, and infinity of the body and its preoccupations. Miguel received his MFA in Ceramics at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2022,  his BFA in Studio Art at the University of New Mexico in 2018, and was a 2024 participant at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. Miguel has been the recipient of a Windgate Scholarship, a RISD x Hyundai Motor Group Research Fellowship, the Butler Family Graduate Fellowship and is a 2024 AICAD Teaching Fellow.