Awilda Sterling-Duprey is known for weaving together abstract expressionism and the three-dimensional spectrum of choreography. Throughout a career that bridges political engagement and lyrical gesture, the artist addresses themes of identity and gender, while also referencing diaspora, migration, and the silencing of Afro-Caribbean women.
Marked by experimentation, her work blends multiple artistic fields, resulting in poetic expressions led by the body and sensibility—as seen in the Estéticas del Des Orden and Blindfolded. Initiated in 2020, Blindfolded combines dance, music, drawing, and performance: in a creation process as vigorous as it is delicate, the artist blindfolds herself to imprint intense marks onto paper or canvas. In the performance commissioned for the 14th Mercosul Biennial, Sterling-Duprey translates music through movement, creating “danced drawings” in response to jazz improvisations—a playful exercise of freedom and resistance.
Henrique Menezes
Awilda Sterling-Duprey (Puerto Rico, 1947) has a multidisciplinary practice encompassing painting, performance, dance, and sound. Her work explores identity, gender, diaspora, language, and migration and challenges conventional notions of culture and gender boundaries. She is a founding member of Pisotón, Puerto Rico’s first experimental dance collective. Her work has been featured in exhibitions such as the Whitney Museum of American Art Biennial in 2022 and the “No Existe un Mundo Poshuracán” exhibition at the same museum. She lives in San Juan, Puerto Rico.
