> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.catapult-platform.art/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Can Thread Remember the Body? Artist Spotlight Yali Romagoza - URL: https://www.catapult-platform.art/yali-romagoza-artist-thread-rember-body/ - Published: 2025-11-12T08:15:15.000Z - Updated: 2025-11-20T12:50:58.000Z - Description: Cuban-born artist Yali Romagoza transforms linen and performance into acts of healing. Her textile sculptures unravel migration into belonging. - Author: Dominique Catherina Foertig - Tags: Featured > *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**](https://www.yaliromagoza.org/?ref=catapult-platform.art) 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, installation view at The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, NY, showing a tall linen and thread sculpture with intricate folds and textures beside a smaller wall-mounted fiber panel.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/11/yali-romagoza-artist-art.webp) ****Yali Romagoza:** Installation view. The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, NY. All rights reserved © Yali Romagoza **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. --- [Ask Kurt - Artist Feature for €99 (Not a Shoutout)Ask Kurt by Catapult - artists meet real curators. No fees, no noise. Authentic introductions, curated visibility, lasting presence online.![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/icon/munchies-art-club-magazine-655.png)Catapult - The New Munchies Art Club | Critical CuratorsDominique Catherina Foertig![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/thumbnail/ask-kurt-1-24.png)](https://www.catapult-platform.art/ask-kurt-a-curatorial-global-network-project/) --- Her slow process of pulling threads from linen turns fabric into skin-like landscapes of memory and endurance. ![Yali Romagoza performing A Cross to Bear (2024), wearing a blue wig, mask, white clothing, and gold gloves while carrying a large striped soft sculpture outdoors during Rebirth of a Body in New York.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/11/yali-romagoza-handmade-textile-artwork-linen-and-thread-1.webp) ****Yali Romagoza:** **A Cross to Bear*, 2024\. Documentation still from performance. Produced as part of **Rebirth of a Body*, curated by Natacha Voliakovsky with the support of Argentina Performance Art and the New York Latin American Art. Image courtesy the artist ![Yali Romagoza lying on sand during her performance Meditating Ways to Escape Body Trauma (The Healing Dance) (2023), wearing a linen textile sculpture, white clothing, and a blue wig at Asbury Park Beach, NJ.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/11/yali-romagoza-modern-textile-sculpture-artwork-new-york.webp) ****Yali Romagoza:** **Meditating Ways to Escape Body Trauma (The Healing Dance)*, 2023\. Documentation still from performance. **Produced as part of the Siren Art residency, curated by Victoria Reis,* Asbury Park Beach**,* NJ, 2023\. Photo by Sara Stadtmiller. Image courtesy of the artist In 2025 her work appeared in *The Reality Principle* at [**Monira Foundation, NJ**, ](https://monirafoundation.org/?ref=catapult-platform.art)and in *Result by Chance* at [**The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts**](https://www.efanyc.org/?ref=catapult-platform.art), NY, following earlier performances at *Rebirth of a Body* ([**Argentina Performance Art**](https://www.argentinaperformanceart.com/?ref=catapult-platform.art), 2024) and the [***Siren Art Residency* in Asbury Park**](https://www.transformerdc.org/siren-arts?ref=catapult-platform.art), NJ (2023). ![Yali Romagoza, Skin Panel #5 (2024), linen and thread on wood panel, textured fiber relief resembling skin or landscape patterns, photographed against a white gallery wall.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/11/yali-romagoza-contemporary-fiber-art-cuban-female-artist.webp) ****Yali Romagoza:** **Skin Panel #5*, 2024\. Linen and thread on wood panel. All rights reserved © Yali Romagoza ### **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. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/11/yali-romagoza-artist-contemporary-art.webp) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/11/yali-romagoza-artist-sculpture.webp) ****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. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/11/yali-romagoza-landscapes-of-belonging-textile-installation.webp) ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/11/yali-romagoza-textile-artist-performance-installation-art-usa.webp) ****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 ![Yali Romagoza, Skin Panel #1 (2024), linen and thread on wood panel, close-up view showing textured woven surface extending from the wall during Result by Chance exhibition at The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, NY.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/11/yali-romagoza-cuban-contemporary-artist-textile-performance-identity.webp) ****Yali Romagoza:** **Skin Panel #1*, 2024\. Linen and thread on wood panel. Installation view from **Result by Chance*, 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. ![Yali Romagoza, Landscapes of Belonging, Sculpture #1 (2025), linen and thread sculpture shown in the group exhibition The Reality Principle at Monira Foundation, NJ, surrounded by visitors in a large gallery space.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/11/yali-romagoza-textile-sculpture-linen-thread-monira-foundation.webp) ****Yali Romagoza**: **Landscapes of Belonging, Sculpture #1*, 2025\. Installation view from the group exhibition **The Reality Principle*, Monira Foundation, NJ. All rights reserved © Yali Romagoza ### **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. ![Yali Romagoza, Landscapes of Belonging (2025), close-up still showing the artist’s hand pulling individual linen threads during the making process of her textile sculpture.](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/11/yali-romagoza-linen-sculpture-studio-view-efa-new-york-1.webp) ****Yali Romagoza:** **Landscapes of Belonging*, 2025\. Linen and thread, video. Still from the thread-pulling process. All rights reserved © Yali Romagoza ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/2025/11/yali-romagoza-performance-linen-costume-miguel-alejandro-castillo.webp) ****Yali Romagoza:** **Landscapes of Belonging, Sculpture #2*, 2025\. Linen and thread on mannequin. Studio view, The Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts, NY. All rights reserved © Yali Romagoza ### **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**](https://www.instagram.com/yaliromagoza/?ref=catapult-platform.art) and visit [**Romagoza's website**](https://www.yaliromagoza.org/?ref=catapult-platform.art). Share this with someone who believes that healing can be handmade. --- ## What we have written lately: [Can an Alter Ego Protect You From Overexposure? | Grip FaceDavid Oliver’s masked persona Grip Face explores digital anxiety through sculpture and installation. But does the alter ego protect or multiply exposure?![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/icon/munchies-art-club-magazine-696.png)Catapult - The New Munchies Art Club | Critical CuratorsErnst Koslitsch![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/1c/24/1c2478ff-417d-4e88-8226-288af467f6b9/content/images/thumbnail/Grip-Face-aka-david-oliver-artist.webp)](https://www.catapult-platform.art/grip-face-david-oliver-artist-can-alter-ego-protect-contemporary-overexposure/) Grip Face - Spotlight [Why Do Art Open Calls Still Exclude Artists Over 35?Open calls and residencies often define ‘emerging artist’ as under 35, but real art careers don’t expire. 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