Imna Arroyo

Early life and education

Arroyo was born in 1951 in Guayama, Puerto Rico and attended the Pontifical Catholic University of Puerto Rico as an honours student in 1966. She graduated in 1967 and enrolled at the Escuela de Artes Plásticas de Puerto Rico where she studied under Frank Cerbonie, Rafael Tufiño, Luis Hernández Cruz and Susana Herero. After the death of her mother in 1973, Arroyo moved to New York and studied at the Pratt Institute, graduating in 1977 with a B.F.A. and then studying at the printmaking department at Yale University's School of Art, where she was a student of Gabor Peterdi, Winefred Lutz, Greta Campbell, Elizabeth Murray and Samia Halaby.

Career

Following her graduation from Yale, Arroyo moved to New York University where she worked in printmaking with Krishna Reddy. She was awarded a Ford Foundation Teaching Grant in the same year, and an Artist Project Grant by the Connecticut Commission on the Arts in 1980. In 1982 she began exploring the theme of "energia de mujeres", or "women's energy", inspired by her experience of women within her family and heritage; this continues to be her primary artistic theme. From 1996 to 1993, Arroyo served as Commissioner of the Commission of Cultural Affairs of New Haven, and was a Women in Leadership Honoree; in 1987, she was awarded the Merit Award of South Central Community College and in 1994, the Professional Development Award of Eastern Connecticut State University.

In 1990 Arroyo completed her series Moving Through the Spiral, a collection of paintings and lithographs influenced by her visits to Mexico and New Mexico. Other prominent exhibitions and series include Time, Movement and Symbolism at the Akus Gallery and Charter Oak Cultural Center in 1995, and participation in a group exhibit at the 14th General Assembly and Congress of the UNESCO International Association of Art, also in 1995. In 2000 she created Voices of Water with Lillian Pitt, Gail Tremblay and Betsy Damon; this was then exhibited at the CESTA Festival. The same year, she collaborated with Arto Lindsay on Santuario para les animas Africanas (Sanctuary for the [Tortured] African Souls), which was exhibited in the ruins of the Iglesia Santo Domingo in Panama City. In 2011 Arroya served as the Master Artist-in-Residence at Spelman College.

Personal life

While living in Puerto Rico, Arroyo married Tito Efrain Mattei and had two daughters, Isis and Swahili. She left her husband before moving to the United States, but later remarried him and they had a third child, a son.