Overview

TAíNA CRUZ (b. 1998, New York) lives and works in New Haven. Across painting, sculpture, installation, and video, she builds immersive worlds where figures, objects and animals inhabit charged architectural spaces, staging acts of becoming. 

 
Drawing on African American and Caribbean traditions and shaped by coming of age within networked image culture, Cruz approaches identity as fluid and iterative. Her work stages moments of transformation where folklore and contemporary visual systems overlap and evolve. 

 

 

Relevant exhibitions include MoMA  PS1, New York (2026, upcoming); The Whitney Biennial, New York (2026, upcoming); Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit (2025); MMK Frankfurt (2025); Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin (2024); MoMA PS1, New York (2023); Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin (2023, solo); Studio Mondial, Berlin (2023); Martos Gallery, New York (2023); Kraupa-Tuskany Zeidler, Berlin (2023); Housing Gallery, New York (2022, solo); Embajada, San Juan (2022, solo);  Housing Gallery, New York (2021); New Release Gallery, Online (2020); The Gormley Gallery, Baltimore, (2020). 

 

Cruz received an MFA from the Yale School of Art (2025) and a BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art (2020), as well as the GO-A: Goya Opportunity Award in San Juan, Puerto Rico (2019), and was featured on the MICA Dean’s List from 2016–2020.

Works
  • Figure with Burning Face
    Figure with Burning Face
  • Hudson River Mermaid on Strike
    Hudson River Mermaid on Strike
  • Catch me
    Catch me
  • Eclipsed
    Eclipsed
  • El Bronx nunca Duerme
    El Bronx nunca Duerme
  • Encounter
    Encounter
  • Gwyneth Soultrow Version. 1
    Gwyneth Soultrow Version. 1
  • Night out
    Night out
  • Lookout
    Lookout
  • Midnight Moment
    Midnight Moment
  • Portrait of a Goblin #3
    Portrait of a Goblin #3
  • Screech
    Screech
  • Time Out Clone
    Time Out Clone
  • Tyra in the Middle
    Tyra in the Middle
  • Eyes On You
    Eyes On You
  • Hound
    Hound
  • Be Easy
    Be Easy
  • Interior Root
    Interior Root
  • Look'ere I picked this up on 125th
    Look'ere I picked this up on 125th
  • Mind Map 2023: Wake up call
    Mind Map 2023: Wake up call
  • Stay a little longer
    Stay a little longer
Exhibition Views
Exhibitions
Press
Events