"Stephanie Mercado's imagery explores the proverbial American Dream and the psychology of labor. She fuses traditional printmaking with experimental practices. Her prints are constructed from hand-printed elements on colored paper – flowers, household items, images from folklore and American pop culture. The pieces are arranged to form narratives that represent growth and flowering into being. Previous bodies of work have examined and interpreted how history is recorded through the fusion of historical imagery with contemporary pop-culture. The intermixing of the elements reveal how the power of images has influenced American culture. Stephanie earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Drawing and Painting from California State University Long Beach. In 2021, she was awarded a community focused public art mural for the 3rd & Dangler affordable housing complex in East Los Angeles, by National CORE. In 2020 she was awarded a Metro poster commission for their Silver Linings Series and an artist residency at Tamarind Institute in Albuquerque, NM. She has exhibited nationally and internationally including exhibitions in Norway, Italy, Spain and British Columbia. Her work can be found in the permanent collection of Metro Arts LA, the Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin, Texas, Tamarind Institute of Lithography’s archives at the University of New Mexico, and the Zuckerman Museum of Art, Kennesaw, Georgia." (stephaniemercado.com/about/). Mercado is currently based out of Los Angeles, CA.
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