Aram Han Sifuentes (she/they) is a social practice and fiber artist, writer, and educator. Her work is political and informed by her own experience as an immigrant living in the United States, and with her parents working in the garment industry. Her work centers immigrant and disenfranchised communities and explores themes of race and identity, immigration and immigrant labor, possession and dispossession, citizenship and belonging, voting, dissent, and protest.
She creates participatory projects that confront social and racial injustices against the disenfranchised and riffs off official institutions and bureaucratic processes to reimagine new, inclusive, and humanized systems of civic engagement and belonging. She does this by creating participatory and active environments where safety, play, and skill-sharing are emphasized. And even though many of her projects are collaborative and communal in nature, they incite and highlight individual’s experiences, politics, and voice.
Aram Han Sifuentes lives and works in Chicago. Solo exhibitions of her work have been presented at the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, Chicago; Chicago Cultural Center, Chicago; Pulitzer Arts Foundation, St. Louis; moCa Cleveland, Cleveland; and Skirball Cultural Center, Los Angeles. She has received numerous awards including a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, 3Arts Award, 3Arts Next Level Award, Map Fund Grant, and Joyce Award.