Each pulled thread is a breath, a loss, and a small act of rebuilding.
A Fabric That Learns to Breathe
In the studio, a single thread leaves the linen surface and the fabric begins to move.
Yali Romagoza builds her sculptures by undoing before she creates, pulling one filament at a time until absence turns visible.
The process is patient and rhythmic, closer to meditation than craft.
Each work keeps the tension of that gesture, a record of labor and endurance that transforms domestic material into a language of memory.
Yali Romagoza is a Cuban-born interdisciplinary artist based in New York, working between textile sculpture, performance, and video to explore migration, the body, and transformation through material labor.
Her slow process of pulling threads from linen turns fabric into skin-like landscapes of memory and endurance.
In 2025 her work appeared in The Reality Principle at Monira Foundation, NJ, and in Result by Chance at The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, NY, following earlier performances at Rebirth of a Body (Argentina Performance Art, 2024) and the Siren Art Residency in Asbury Park, NJ (2023).
From Havana to New York
Born in Havana and now based in New York, Romagoza carries migration as both subject and method. Her series Landscapes of Belonging and Skin Panels explore what remains after leaving a place behind.
The linen becomes a stand-in for skin, its weave loosening like time itself. Through this slow unraveling she reconstructs identity strand by strand, turning displacement into material presence.
Yali Romagoza: On the left: Landscapes of Belonging, Sculpture #1, 2025. Still from performance video in collaboration with performer Salomé Egas. HD video, 16:9, Color, Stereo. On the right: Landscapes of Belonging, Sculpture #1, 2025. Still from performance video in collaboration with performer Miguel. Alejandro Castillo. HD video, 16:9, Color, Stereo. All rights reserved © Yali Romagoza
Performance as Second Skin
When Romagoza collaborates with performers, the textile moves from object to body. Figures wrapped in linen walk, bend, or breathe inside the work, blurring sculpture and costume.
The performances recall ritual rather than theater, offering gestures of visibility for those often unseen. Every movement extends the quiet protest already woven into the fabric, affirming that softness can carry resistance.
Yali Romagoza: On the left: Skin Panel #3, 2024. Linen and thread on wood panel. On the right: Installation view, The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, NY. All rights reserved © Yali Romagoza
The Invention of Cuquita
Her alter ego Cuquita La Muñeca Cubana emerged from paper dolls of her Havana childhood. Through Cuquita, Romagoza examines how Latina identity is staged and consumed.
Humor meets critique: bright wigs, layered fabrics, exaggerated poise. The persona exposes stereotypes while reclaiming their imagery, turning play into strategy and visibility into authorship.
Bodies That Rebuild Themselves
Living with Cleidocranial Dysplasia has shaped her sense of transformation. The body is never static; it learns to adapt. This understanding threads through her practice.
Each pulled fiber becomes a metaphor for healing, each surface a mirror of endurance. What appears fragile is, in truth, sustained strength, the quiet kind that grows from persistence.
Why This Work Matters Now?
In an art world obsessed with speed, Romagoza insists on duration. The time embedded in her textiles resists instant consumption.
Her work restores presence through touch and repetition, reminding us that repair is not spectacle but care. Standing before her linen forms, you feel them breathe back. What was once unraveling becomes belonging.
Her practice also extends an eco-feminist sensitivity, where care, endurance, and the act of making by hand become quiet forms of resistance.
Follow Yali Romagoza on Instagram and visit Romagoza's website. Share this with someone who believes that healing can be handmade.
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