Pamela Ybañez is a Bay Area based artist. Her artwork incorporates personal and social investigations as a way to discuss inequalities, social hierarchies and as a way to strengthen her connection to her homeland. Examining how class and race affects different groups of people in similar and different ways, she examines her own history of migration, when they were allowed to come here, and how her being in this country relates to the Civil Rights Movement. Understanding that solidarity is key as she tries to comprehend what true liberation can be. Ultimately all her investigations lead her to systems of power and that the American idea of freedom is only for some and not for all people. In the past few years she’s been learning about the awe inspiring history of weaving in the Philippines and how it has been passed on generationally. Her goal as an artist is to explore how we are woven, unwoven, and how we can connect more constructively with our communities and ourselves. It is this transformative desire to connect and this process of discovery that drives her art. Most recently, she is a recipient of Center for Cultural Innovation Quick Grant and will be an Artist in Resident at Kala Art Institute in 2022. She has exhibited her work nationwide including at Hallwalls, Site:Brooklyn, East Hawaii Cultural Center, and Kearny Street Workshop. In 2003, she received her MFA from the University of Buffalo with a BA from the University of Hawaii at Hilo. She served as an adjunct instructor at Villa Maria College and SUNY at Brockport. She is a founding member of a Filipina/o/x artists collective in the Bay Area called Epekto Art Projects and is also a member of Rock Paper Scissors Collective.
