LAYQA NUNA YAWAR:
LA VOZ DEL ANONIMATO (THE VOICE OF ANONYMITY)
From September 10th through February 28th, 2026, Project for Empty Space presented La Voz del Anonimato (The Voice of Anonymity), a solo exhibition by Artist In Residence Layqa Nuna Yawar at 800 Broad St, Newark, NJ.
La voz del Anonimato (The Voice of Anonymity) was the result of a two-year residency and presented artwork centering the voices of contemporary Andean diaspora members from the tri-state area. With this body of work, Layqa was focused on historical invisibility, embodied by his study of unidentified colonial master painters of the Andes, and contemporary invisibility, experienced by immigrant people the world over, but specifically those living in the USA during the then-current rise of neo-fascism. Layqa was driven by a question: what his contemporary canon and culture would have looked like without this colonial erasure. Some of the answers came as fluid imagery that did not try to hold on to a single reality, but instead offered contradictory meanings rather than synthesis, alongside an exploration of materials and an investigation of landscape and portraiture, both within the Western tradition and specific to the Andean diaspora.
Minga & Memory was a free, public, educational program focused on Andean philosophy, visual language, and immigrant movement-building. Five 90-minute workshops, led by Layqa and collaborating partners, took place alongside Layqa’s PES exhibition. As a starting point for conversations around Andean enduring cultural concepts, they explored the realities of diasporic existence under an oppressive, anti-immigrant government.
“These workshops are a natural extension of my practice. They combine the public and collaborative nature of muralism with the inquiry and research of studio painting. My goal is to amplify the narratives of people who have been historically oppressed and silenced, people who are currently being kidnapped and expatriated, people who look like me, who come from the lands I come from, people who share my ancestral legacy. We have been separated by time, geography, and colonialism, and I aim to create a space where we can find each other in the now, while thinking and talking about our shared past. This work is rooted in shared liberation and welcomes all.” – Layqa Nuna Yawar
About Layqa Nuna Yawar
Layqa Nuna Yawar (b. 1984, Cuenca Ecuador) is a public artist and multidisciplinary storyteller based in the ancestral lands of the Lenni-Lenape: current-day Newark, NJ. His work is best known for large-scale community-based murals, intricate portrait paintings, and multimedia projects that center the complex narratives of immigrant, black, indigenous, and subaltern populations. His artwork aims to disrupt established semiotic systems and reimagine them in service of shared liberation and a better future.
Layqa's name is an invention that honors the Kichwa-Kañari legacy of his descent. His practice is driven by the act of reclaiming history as well as the inherent rupture and repair of the immigrant experience. His work exists at the intersection between migrant alienation and belonging, cross-cultural identity and decolonization, and between the private and the public realms.
His work has been recently commissioned by the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and Munich Airport NJ, in partnership with Public Art Fund and can be permanently found at the new Terminal A at Newark Liberty International Airport. His collaborative work is also now on view at MoMA PS1 in New York City. Other Recent awards include an Artist Impact Award from the Newark Museum of Art, Monument Lab Research Residency, a Creative Catalyst Fund Fellowship by the City of Newark, an Art Changemaker Award from the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey, and a Moving Walls Fellowship by Open Society Foundations among others. Layqa has held multiple teaching residencies, including projects with the United Nations World Food Programme, Casita Maria, and currently teaches at Rutgers University. His murals can be found in cities and communities around the world.