J. Molina-Garcia (she/her) is a Salvadoran-American media artist, writer, and educator. A citizen of the Global South and an American Dreamer, J’s research engages mystical and esoteric traditions of ancient Mesoamerica, Southeast Asia, and Buddhist sects. In this pursuit, she synthesizes marginalized realms of knowledge alongside science, science-fiction, non-western philosophy, and leftist political theory. Her aesthetic output takes on an epic scale, creating immersive physical and psychic environments that use lens-based and time-based technologies to transport viewers into non-physical realms. Her work is not only interdisciplinary, but multidimensional, functioning like a perceptual wormhole that attempts to ignite a viewer's unconscious spiritual and cognitive abilities. Through heavy-handed alteration of photographic imagery, darkroom experiments, and performance projects that center her body as a transwoman, she elicits visionary experiences and emancipatory phenomena.
J holds an MFA degree in Photography+Extended Media from the California Institute of the Arts (CalArts), and graduated with dual degrees in Photography and Art History from the University of North Texas. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Photography and Digital Futures at Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond, VA.
