Judith Huacuja is a Chicana/Latinx art scholar and artist currently living in Dayton Ohio.  Working from a studio in the South Park Historic District, Huacuja’s art makes commentary on social, racial and environmental concerns within the United States.  At the same time, this work reflects Latinx visual and spiritual imagery as a sign of positive social endurance.  Much of the work reflects a Mexican American sensibility that merges Latinx Catholic traditions with methods of honoring indigenous southwestern landscapes.

Originally from Houston, Texas, the artist develops thickly collaged works on canvas and paper.  Working from Commerce Street Arts Warehouse in Houston during the late 1980s and early 1990s, she developed figural abstractions and landscapes that reference the vast environmental devastation around Houston’s ship channel and Gulf Coast. The work of the 1990s-2010s incorporate photographic collage into the acrylic paintings.  Much of this work reflects social justice topics that intersect with environmental issues. 

As a Professor of Art History at the University of Dayton, Huacuja has developed expertise in Latin American, African American and non-Western contemporary art histories.  Her research explores the cultural histories of African American and Latinx art of the Midwest as she analyzes aesthetics and philosophies in relation to minority issues of resistance and activism.