La Sobreviviente 

by Brenda Fonseca-Martinez 

in Public Health Education's Collaborative Workspace 

Fall 2024 

About La Sobreviviente

This exhibition deals with contemplation around childhood trauma and pain, and what it means to process it as an adult. It confronts a personal tension around how one starts to identify small events from childhood that were previously joyful or seemingly normal, but, through the lens of adulthood, become something else altogether. What is reveled over time is that of the innocence and naivety of the childhood experience and the depth of understanding and perspective that comes to us in adulthood. 

About Brenda Fonseca-Martinez 

Brenda Fonseca-Martinez’s creative practice revolves around experimentation and personal stories through this use of textiles and painting. Each piece created is an extension of the past - what she’s been through, what she’s seen, and what she’s learned. She tells her autobiography with environments or symbols that represent the events of her life. Some of these symbols include stick figures, liquor bottles, paper, and an English-second-language classroom. Brenda intentionally uses unexpected bold colors and patterns in communicating about heavy topics. The more you sit with the work and the longer you look, the more you understand that it’s revealing the same about us all, as people. Although the images used are childlike and simplified, Brenda wants to address trauma and pain in a deceptively playful way that allow the stories and messages to sneak up on the viewer. 

About Second Stop 

Greensboro Project Space (GPS) is UNCG School of Art’s off-campus multi-purpose art space that acts as a bridge between students and faculty and the Greensboro community. GPS Second Stop is an opportunity for student exhibitions to travel from Greensboro Project Space’s downtown location to the UNCG campus.

The four current Second Stop exhibitions are on view in the Dean’s Office for the College of Visual and Performing Arts, the Office of the School of Health & Human Sciences, the Collaborative Workspace for Public Health Education, and the Slane Lobby of the  UNCG Auditorium. 

Are you a staff or faculty member at UNCG who would like your office or department to participate in Second Stop? Let us know! Email greensboroprojectspace@gmail.com