Photo courtesy of Paradise Valley Community College

Paradise Valley Community College (PVCC) Art Faculty Saskia Jordá is representing Arizona in the “New Worlds: Women to Watch 2024 Exhibition” at the National Museum of Women in the Arts in Washington D.C. The exhibition, running through August 11, promises to be a celebration of artistic talent from around the globe. Featuring 28 artists, the exhibition occurs every three years and serves as a platform to explore ideas from perspectives that shift across geographies, cultural viewpoints, and time.

Jordá’s artwork, titled “Raíces” (Roots), is characterized by a unique blend of soft and hard materials and her exploration of texture, form, and contrast. Originally commissioned for the “Counter-Landscapes Exhibition” at the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art in Scottsdale, in 2019, the piece stands 6.5 feet tall. The left and right pairs of feet are actual castings from Jordá’s grandmothers’ feet and symbolize exploring personal stories of migration and assimilation through this family portrait.

The upcoming exhibition is the seventh and largest installment of the museum’s Women to Watch exhibition series. The committees participating in New Worlds worked with curators in their regions to create a short list of artists. From this list, NMWA curators selected the artists and works to exhibit at this year’s event.

For Jordá, who teaches drawing as an adjunct faculty member at PVCC as well as textiles at the college’s sister school Phoenix College, the exhibition is both an honor and a validation of her artistic journey. “I am honored to share my work alongside these 27 other artists and connect with a broader audience at a national and international level,” she says.

Jordá’s art often utilizes fabric, wool, cotton fibers, thread, and yarn with a mix of harder materials like wood, metal, and plaster. She began working with this type of medium as a student at Arizona State University, where she earned her bachelors in 2000. She continued to pursue the medium while earning her master’s degree at the School of Visual Arts in New York City.

To learn more about Jordá’s work visit saskiajorda.com. For more information about PVCC’s art program, visit paradisevalley.edu/academics/fine-and-performing-arts/visual-arts.