Amara Uvalle-Ordoñez
Amara Uvalle-Ordoñez is a freelance artist and illustrator based in Baltimore, Maryland. They received their BFA in Illustration from the Maryland Institute College of Art, where they developed a practice that combines traditional academic life drawing with their longstanding interest in sequential art. Their work frequently explores the mundane, personal experience, and the ways memory shapes our understanding of everyday life. Outside of their studio practice, Uvalle-Ordoñez enjoys spending time with their cats.
Uvalle-Ordoñez’s practice considers memory as an unstable and continually shifting form of interpretation. In their recent work, they examine how moments, relationships, animals, and objects are gradually transformed as memories are recalled and rewritten. Their work extends this concept through its material process, beginning with small graphite drawings that are enlarged into Risograph prints. Because Risograph printing is designed for duplication while allowing subtle variations between each impression, the process mirrors the imperfect reproduction and distortion of memory. The physical qualities of the medium further reinforce this idea: Risograph ink does not fully set into the paper and gradually fades, allowing the transformation of each image to continue over time. Through the interplay of drawing, reproduction, and deterioration, Uvalle-Ordoñez embraces memory’s unreliability, turning the erosion of personal experience into both subject and process.