The Latinx Project announces two exhibitions opening in 2026: ‘Ya Mero (Almost there)’ and ‘Burning the Mask’
The Latinx Project at New York University presents two new exhibitions activating galleries at 20 Cooper Square this spring. Ya Mero (Almost there) opens on January 30, 2026, and Burning the Mask opens on March 19, 2026. The exhibitions will be open to the public and community group visits through their closing on May 15, 2026.
Ya Mero (Almost there) is artist-in-residence Karla Diaz’s first solo exhibition in New York City. Karla Diaz was selected as artist in residence through a competitive national open call. She has made work about her life in Los Angeles for over twenty years, calling upon her own lived experiences and the stories of friends, family, and community. San Antonio-based curator Mia Lopez writes, “Her color-saturated works evoke a sense of dream-like recollection, endeavoring to give form to ephemeral emotions and remembrance.” The opening reception for ‘Ya Mero (Almost there)’ is scheduled for January 30.
Curated by Afro-Caribbean interdisciplinary artivist and scholar Patricia Encarnación, Burning the Mask will feature the work of eleven artists and opens in March 2026. Encarnacíon was selected through the Curatorial Open Call at The Latinx Project. Encarnación writes, "Burning the Mask foregrounds practices that refuse imposed identities, rooted in ancestral memory, embodied truth, and radical love." Encarnación has participated in multiple residencies, including The Shed, Smack Mellon (as a Van Lier Fellow), and MuseumsQuartier Vienna. Their work has been recognized by CIFO, the NALAC Fund for the Arts, the Centro León Jiménez Biennial, and the Tropiques Atrium Caribbean art program.
Both exhibitions will take place at 20 Cooper Square at New York University with gallery hours open to the public on Tuesday - Friday, 11 am – 5 pm. Ya Mero (Almost there) will be on view at the third floor gallery. Click here to RSVP for the opening reception on January 30. Burning the Mask will be on view on the first floor gallery following the opening on March 19.
The Latinx Project encourages group visits from schools and community organizations that can be made by appointment at latinxproject@nyu.edu.
The center’s spring exhibitions are made possible with support from the Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Mellon Foundation, Ford Foundation, and the Tomás Ybarra-Frausto Curatorial Fund.
About the Curators
Patricia Encarnación (she/they) is an Afro-Caribbean, New York City–based interdisciplinary artivist and scholar whose work challenges colonial tropes in Caribbean culture through an anti-colonial lens. Encarnación has participated in multiple residencies, including The Shed, Smack Mellon (as a Van Lier Fellow), MuseumsQuartier Vienna, Kovent Catalonia, and the Silver Arts Project at the World Trade Center. Their work has been recognized by CIFO, the NALAC Fund for the Arts, and the Centro León Jiménez Biennial, where Encarnación received the City of Cádiz (Spain) cultural immersion prize and a second fellowship in Martinique through the Tropiques Atrium Caribbean art program. Exhibitions of their work include Documenta 15, the Tribeca Artists Award Program, the Hudson River Museum, the Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA), the NADA Art Fair, and the Washington Project for the Arts (WPA). In addition to actively exhibiting, Encarnación has pursued curatorial projects at New York University (NYU), the Centro de la Imagen (CDMX), the Bronx Museum, ChaShaMa, WOPHA Miami, and alternative gallery spaces in NYC, Miami, and the Dominican Republic. Encarnación earned a full-tuition scholarship for a BFA at Parsons School of Design (The New School) and was awarded the MacCracken Fellowship for graduate studies in Caribbean and Latin American Museum Studies at New York University.
Mia Lopez is the inaugural Curator of Latinx Art at the McNay Art Museum in San Antonio, Texas. She has worked with artists and leading contemporary art institutions across the United States for over 15 years. She recently curated the exhibition Rasquachsimo: 35 Years of a Chicano Sensibility and co-curated the exhibition Synthesis & Subversion: Redux at Ruby City. Lopez has previously held curatorial positions at DePaul Art Museum in Chicago and the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis. Exhibitions and publications she has contributed to include Remember Where You Are, LatinXAmerican, and International Pop. Lopez is an alumnus of the Smithsonian Latino Museum Studies Program and the National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures Leadership Institute. She holds a BA in Art History from Rice University and dual MAs in Art History and Arts Administration from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
About the Artist-in-Residence
Karla Diaz is a writer, teacher, and multidisciplinary artist who engages in painting, installation, video, and performance. Using narrative to question identity, institutional power, and explore memory, her socially engaged practice generates exciting collaborations and provokes important dialogue among diverse communities. Notably, she is the co-founder of the collective and community artist space Slanguage. Critical discourse is central to her practice as she explores social, subcultural, and marginalized stories.
As a stroke survivor, she practices repetitive memory exercises, using drawing as a tool for excavating and retaining information. Personal memories, folklore, familiar iconography of her Mexican heritage, and American pop culture are intertwined in surreal compositions that consider family, loss, and the complexities of the Latinx experience in the United States.
Diaz was born and lives in Los Angeles, CA. She received an MFA from the California Institute of the Arts in 2003 and a BA from California State University Los Angeles in 1999. Her works have been exhibited nationally and internationally at institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, ICA Boston, Hyde Park Art Center, Serpentine Galleries (London), and Museo Casa de Cervantes (Valladolid, Spain). She has been the recipient of numerous grants and awards from Art Matters, Tiffany Foundation, Riverside Art Museum, and CalArts. Her work is included in the collections of the Perez Art Museum Miami, Dallas Museum of Art, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego and Inhotim Museum (Brumadinho, Brazil) among others.
About The Latinx Project
The Latinx Project: Interdisciplinary Center for Arts and Culture advances Latinx Studies through creative and interdisciplinary programs. Founded in 2018 at New York University, the center’s distinguishing programs include the Artist-in-Residence, Curatorial Open Call, the Intervenxions digital platform and publication, and fellowships for junior scholars and graduate students.