My practice explores transience, community, and belonging by depicting "third spaces"—the vital gathering spots outside of home and work. Through painting, I document places like bodegas, restaurants, and the streets, highlighting the seen and unseen elements of daily life while capturing the simultaneous absence and presence of la comunidad. My work depicts the specific environments where vulnerable communities seek refuge, sanctuary, and connection. This interplay invites viewers to question what third spaces mean to our collective identity at a time when community spaces are under threat.

In East Harlem, the relationship to Mexico is woven into different areas of everyday life, from neighbors' conversations in Spanish to the iconography seen around storefronts. This neighborhood is full of "pockets of home away from home." To explore these environments, my body of work highlights different viewpoints of a single location, depicting varied aspects of the same physical space. This methodology influences my approach of creating paintings in pairs, generating a sequential narrative that expands on how a space is experienced. These paired works act as a form of resistance, a way of existing against all odds. Finding and building community this way is vital in a city that is as difficult as it is diverse especially today, when immigrant communities are actively targeted and dismantled in our political climate.

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Email: selena.cisneros.studio@gmail.com

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