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Artist Carlos Wilfredo Encarnación stands in an empty gallery. He wears glasses and looks at the camera with a neutral expression.

Carlos Wilfredo Encarnación

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I create mixed media paintings, drawings and collage artworks fusing ornamented imagery from tropical flora, fauna, and Puerto Rican popular and pre-colonial arts. With these influences, I develop imaginative patterns that symbolically touch upon transformation, mutability and resilience. Through decorative biomorphic elements, I explore dualistic narratives of nostalgia that relate to personal and collective experiences of dislocation. With this exploration I combine memories and traditions from my motherland while simultaneously contrasting current realities and sociohistorical references. My practice is introspectional in scope and serves as a place for mediation in which I redefine and embrace other meanings and paths toward connectedness.

Carlos Wilfredo Encarnación is a visual artist and educator born and raised in Puerto Rico. Encarnación received a BA in Social Sciences/Forensic Psychology from the Universidad of Puerto Rico, a BA in Painting from CUNY-Herbert H. Lehman College, and an MFA in Studio Art from CUNY-The City College of New York. He is the recipient of the Bronx Museum’s AIM Fellowship, Ankhlave Fellowship, and Wave Hill’s Winter Workspace Program. His works have been included in exhibitions at the New York Botanical Garden, Casita María Center for Arts and Education, BronxArtSpace, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, The Clemente Cultural Center, and others. Encarnación currently works and lives in The Bronx.

Featured Artwork

"Diptych wall installation." - Carlos Wilfredo Encarnación. A mosquito-head pattern print behind painted flowers and quenepas..
Carlos Wilfredo Encarnación. Flores de Quenepas y Quenepas con mosquerío (Diptych), 2023. Adhesive vinyl, acrylic print and gouache on canvas. 24"x30". Image courtesy of the artist.
Conch shell resin molds encased in a mirrored circle. The objects hang from a tree.
Carlos Wilfredo Encarnación. Resonantias III, 2024. Resin, annatto powder, acrylic paint, rope and acrylic mirrors. 10.75" x 6.75". Image courtesy of the artist.
Abstracted self-portraits incorporated into the shapes of fantastical tropical flowers.
Carlos Wilfredo Encarnación. Florido series, 2020-2021. Self-portrait with a Peace Lily (top left). Self-portrait with a Hibiscus Flower (top right). Self-portrait with Allamanda Flowers (bottom left). Self-portrait with a West Indian Jasmine (bottom right). Polyptych. Acrylic paint, gouache, paper on wood panels. Image courtesy of the artist.