Orozco Gallery Pop Up & LCA

The art pieces hanging on the walls of Orozco Gallery, a pop-up exhibit open on The Commons from April 3 to May 2, are continuously evolving. The nomadic gallery, curated by Colombian-American artist Yen Ospina, primarily highlights the work of Latine fiber artists, bringing perspectives often marginalized in the art world to the center of Ithaca’s business district.

Last year, Ospina worked with Debra Castillo, a professor of Comparative Literature and Hispanic Studies at Cornell University, to plan the first Orozco Gallery exhibit, “We Are La Voz I.” Ospina said this year’s exhibition, “We Are La Voz II,” helped her process her grief for Castillo, who died in October 2025.

“Art is therapy,” Ospina said. “I turn to art when I need to understand my feelings.”

Ospina said Orozco Gallery’s communal and cathartic environment is particularly necessary after a year of rising anti-immigrant rhetoric and policy. Sarah Lopez, a local artist who exhibited her work at the gallery, said that the initiative promoted empathy.

“In a time of a lot of fear towards immigrants and people of color, we’re just letting folks know that we do exist,” Lopez said. “That our identities are valuable, that our stories are meant to be shared in order to create community and to build resilience. We are what makes this country wonderful.”

Lopez first met Ospina through the 2024 Latine Exhibit at the Community School of Music and Arts. At the time, Lopez felt insecure about her “fiber painting” technique, an original method that involves cutting and gluing hand-dyed and hand-spun yarn onto a canvas to evoke brush strokes. Lopez said Ospina helped her shed her imposter syndrome.

“I didn’t view myself as an artist,” Lopez said. “She was the one who really uplifted me and said, ‘Yes, you made this. This is worth being seen, put it in the gallery.’”

Lopez’s relationship with Ospina mirrors Ospina’s relationship with Castillo. Melissa Castillo-Garsow, Castillo’s daughter, said that the gallery honored her mother’s legacy by championing up-and-coming artists.

“[My mother] believed in the power of the arts as a community space [to build] resilience and resistance,” Castillo-Garsow said.

Carolina Osorio Gil, one of Castillo’s former PhD students who showed her work in the exhibition, said fiber art can unravel concepts of linear time. Both Castillo and Osorio Gil’s late father have embroidered on a tablecloth that now hangs in the gallery. After their passing, Osorio Gil embroidered a dove connecting both of their stitches.

“I can still collaborate with them, even though they’re gone,” Osorio Gil said.

The works at the gallery alternate between whimsical and heavy tones. Zippers represented how bodies remember traumatic experiences; colorful felted pastries invoked Mexican culture; a hand-woven belt explored assimilation and adoption. By centering textile work, Ospina’s curation disrupts the very concept of what is fine art and what is craft.

Lopez said she hoped Orozco Gallery would make art feel more accessible.

“Creation is for everybody,” Lopez said. “You don’t need a background in art, you don’t need official training. … There’s this creativity that lives within you.”

Ospina is the president of the Latino Civic Association of Tompkins County, which serves the roughly one-in-ten Ithaca locals who identify as Hispanic or Latino. The volunteer organization’s year-round exhibitions, performances and mixers have helped Ospina connect with many of the artists now involved with Orozco Gallery.

LCA’s Hispanic Heritage Month Celebration introduced Ospina to Quinten Hernandez, an academic development specialist at Ithaca College who performs under the drag persona Queen Tessential. Hernandez said he bonded with Ospina over their mutual interest in the intersection of queer and Latine identity in Tompkins County.

Hernandez co-hosted a Latine Drag Night with local performers Skarlet Killz and Noah Phence at Orozco Gallery on April 15. He said he hoped the gallery would help people of color feel more comfortable in the art world, which can often feel uninviting.

“[I am] hoping that folks feel like they belong in the art space,” Hernandez said. “When it comes to highlighting talent, it’s really cool to have this kind of opportunity, to create a sense of belonging for this community.”

Lopez said the exhibit offers an opportunity to engage with diversity.

“Creating spaces where folks can interact with people who are different from them, who come from different places, whose parents come from different places, [can help them recognize] that there are so many diverse and wonderful populations that exist, and they create art and they make life vibrant and beautiful,” Lopez said. “The whole point of Orozco gallery is to have this hub where people can feel welcome and accepted and loved, just as they are.”