Layqa Nuna Yawar is a migrant latinx artist, large scale muralist, agitator, educator and organizer born in Ecuador and based out of Newark, NJ. His large scale murals, paintings and projects question injustice, racism and xenophobia, while celebrating cross-cultural identity and migration in order to amplify the silenced narratives of people of color around the Americas and the world.

Having migrated from Ecuador to the USA at an early age, his art has been greatly impacted by the immigrant experience and by his own multicultural identity. His artwork also developed out of a traditional visual arts education, a practice of street art interventions and independent self-organization principles. His mural work aims to reflect and amplify silenced voices by using the power of monumental art and representational painting in public space. By creating murals with the involvement of host communities, these landmarks can help us imagine and create a better and brighter future.

The artist’s practice also extends to curation, project production, mural making workshops and educational lectures. Some of the projects he is involved in include: Young New Yorkers in New York as a founding member, teaching artist and benefit curator, working with Conect-Arte and the United Nation’s World Food Program in El Salvador as a teaching artist, Gateways to Newark: Portraits in Newark, New Jersey as muralist and curator, and City Without Walls in Newark, NJ as a mentor and teaching artist.