Natalia Lassalle-Morillo
Natalia Lassalle-Morillo (Bayamón, Puerto Rico, 1991) is an artist and director. Merging experimental film and theater methodologies, her practice examines memory and history through extensive and rigorous periods of research and co-creation. Her projects unfold as rehearsals for an alternative historiography, thinking alongside fellow artists, researchers and non-traditional performers to examine our relationships to the past while simultaneously foregrounding the creation of new mythologies and fictions rooted in the Caribbean. Presented as multi-channel video installations, short and long-form experimental films, and live theatrical performances, her work has been presented extensively in venues, festivals and theaters internationally.
She is part in the 61 International Art Exhibition of La Biennale di Venezia. Other exhibitions include the Cooper Hewitt Smithsonian Design Museum (New York), Amant (New York), RedCat (Los Angeles), 22a SescVideoBrasil Biennial (São Paulo), National Portrait Gallery (Washington, D.C.), Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Puerto Rico, Blackstar Film Festival (Philadelphia), Images Festival (Toronto) and Seoul Museum of Art (Korea). Natalia has been an artist fellow at the Smithsonian Institute, and participated in residencies at Headlands Center for the Arts (CA), Amant (NY), Pioneer Works (NY), MassMoca (Massachusetts) and Fonderie Darling (Montréal). She has taught film and theater at Maryland Institute of the Art, CalArts and Bard Microcollege, and facilitates workshops and knowledge exchanges as a way to socialize her artistic practice. She developed her practice nomadically, but she is currently based in Puerto Rico, where she was born.
Retiro, Installation View, 2026, 61st Biennale de Venezia.
Retiro, Video still, 2019.
Grief becomes, Video still, 2026.
Grief becomes, Video still, 2026.
Grief becomes, Video still, 2026.
Grief becomes, Video still, 2026.
En Parábola/Conversations on Tragedy (Part I), Installation View, 2024.
En Parábola/Conversations on Tragedy (Part I), Video still, 2024.
Grief becomes, Video still, 2026.
CV
RESIDENCIES, FELLOWSHIPS, GRANTS AND AWARDS
2025 Watermill Center, Watermill, NY
2025 La Residencia, Abrons Art Center & Pública, New York City and Puerto Rico
2024 Headlands Center for the Arts, Artist Residency, Headlands, CA
2024 Mellon Foundation Presidential Initiative Grant
2024 Foundation of Contemporary Arts, Emergency Grant
2024-2026 Mellon Foundation Presidential Initiative Grant
2024 Máquina Simple Grant, Beta Local, Puerto Rico
2024 National Endowment of the Arts, Interdisciplinary Artist Grant
2023 Mellon Foundation/ Center for Puerto Rican Studies Bridging the Divides Fellowship
2023 San Juan 721 Residency, Santurce, Puerto Rico
2023 Pioneer Works Visual Arts Residency, Brooklyn NY
2022 Amant Artist Residency, Brooklyn, NY
2022 Puerto Rican Artist Fellow, MassMoca Studio Residency, North Adams, Massachusetts
2022 Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship, Washington DC
2022 Best Experimental Film Award, Blackstar Film Festival - With Sofía Gallisá Muriente
2021 PAOS GDL, Guadalajara, MX
2021 Foundation of Contemporary Arts, Emergency Grant
2019 National Association of Latino Artists and Cultures (NALAC) Artist Grant
2018 The Harbor,Beta-Local,Puerto Rico
2016 FonderieDarling American Artist Residency, Montréal, CA
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2027 En Parábola/Conversations on Tragedy (Part I & II), Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Puerto Rico
2026 En Parábola/Conversations on Tragedy (Part I & II), Abrons Arts Center, New York, NY
2026 Sujetos Indómitos, Galería El Kilometro, San Juan, Puerto Rico - with Sofía Gallisá Muriente
2025 En Parábola/Conversations on Tragedy (Part I), Instituto TeleArte, Santiago, Chile
2024 En Parábola/Conversations on Tragedy (Part I), Amant, Brooklyn NY
2024 Foreign in a domestic sense, Dazibao, Montreal, Québec; in collaboration w/ Sofía Gallisá Muriente
2023 Foreign in a domestic sense, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Puerto Rico; w/ Sofía Gallisá Muriente
2021 Libreto Escrito, Aún no Existe, Hidrante, Santurce, Puerto Rico
2018 La Ruta del Progreso, Pública, Santurce, Puerto Rico; w/ Chris Gregory and Erika Rodríguez
COLLECTIVE EXHIBITIONS AND BIENNAILS (Selected)
2026 61st Biennale di Venezia In Minor Keys by Koyo Kouoh, Venice, Italy
2026 We are this land, MSU Broad, Michigan, USA
2026 Dancing the Revolution, Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, Chicago
2026 Humid Traces, Ford Foundation Gallery, New York, NY
2025 Keeping time in Vaivén, Katherine E. Nash Gallery, MSU, Minneapolis, Minnesota
2024 Unruly Subjects, Making Home: Cooper Hewitt Triennial, New York - with Sofía Gallisá Muriente
2024 Joint Custody, SlashArt, San Francisco
2024 Dig where you stand, KADIST, Cotonou, Benín
2023 22a Biennale Sesc_VideoBrasil, Sao Paulo, Brazil
2023 New Devotions, The Clemente, New York, NY
2023 Entangled Spaces, Contemporary Art in the Caribbean, MoCa Taipei, Taiwan
2022 Unraveling the (Under-) Development Complex or Towards a Post- (Under-)
Development Interdependence, SAAVY Contemporary, Berlin, Germany
2021 Enterrar los pies en el paisaje, Museo Cabañas & Kadist, Guadalajara, México
2021 Reensamblaje, Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Bienal de Fotografía, Tenerife, Canary Islands
2021 Constant Storm, Art from Puerto Rico & its Diaspora, USF Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, FL
2020 TheBackroom,Museo Tamayo, Ciudad de México, MX
2020 Temporal, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago, USA
2019 Will you still love me tomorrow? , Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, Korea
2019 It will never become quite familiar to you, Oolite Arts, Miami, FL
THEATRE AND PERFORMANCE PROJECTS (Selected)
2027 En Parábola/Conversations on Tragedy, Teatro Victoria Espinosa, San Juan, Puerto Rico
2027 Tactics ofTransmission, Teatro Victoria Espinosa, San Juan, Puerto Rico - w/ Sofía Gallisá Muriente
2026 Tactics ofTransmission, 61st Biennale de Venezia, Venice, Italy - w/ Sofía Gallisá Muriente
2026 Tactics of Transmission, MUAC/MoMA Ciudad de México, México -w/ Sofía Gallisá Muriente
2026 Tactics ofTransmission,Evidence Festival, Bard College, NY - w/ Sofía Gallisá Muriente
2024 Retiro, a performance with Gloria Morillo, Slash Art, San Francisco, CA
2021 The Night and Other Electric Flowers, Center for New Performance, CalArts, Valencia, CA
2019 Antigone, Walt Disney Modular Theater, Valencia, CA
2018 En Parábola w/Gloria Morillo, Galería Diagonal, Santurce, Puerto Rico
2017 Retiro, Miami Theatre Center, Miami, Florida
2017 A Study in Cohabitation, Fonderie Darling, Montréal, QC
2016 IRMA, Miami Theatre Center, Miami, FL
FESTIVALS & INDIVIDUAL SCREENINGS
2026 Pasadizo en Espiral, Centro de Cultura Digital, Ciudad de México, México
2025 La Ruta, French Institute of Senegal/KADIST, Dakar, Senegal
2025 En Parábola/Conversations on Tragedy (Part I), Casa del Lago, MUAC, Ciudad de México, MX
2025 En Parábola/Conversations on Tragedy (Part I), Third Horizon Film Festival, Miami, FL
2025 Passage of the Spiral, Images Festival, Toronto
2025 Passage of the Spiral, MUAC/UNAM, Ciudad de México, MX
2025 Passage of the Spiral, Oaxaca Cine, Oaxaca, MX
2025 Passage of the Spiral, Museo Comunitario de Rastros y Rostros, Yanhuitlán, Oaxaca
2025 Foreign in a domestic sense, Ciclo de Cine: Sentimientos Locales, Crisis Galería, Lima, Perú
2024 Passage of the Spiral, RedCat, Los Angeles, CA
2023 Foreign in a domestic sense, National Portrait Gallery, Washington DC - w/Sofía Gallisá Muriente
2023 Foreign in a domestic sense, CounterFlows, Batalha Cinema, Porto, Portugal - w/Sofía Gallisá Muriente
2023 Foreign in a domestic sense, Lightwork, Syracuse NY - w/ Sofía Gallisá
2022 Foreign in a domestic sense, Cinema Moderne, Montréal, CA- w/ Sofía Gallisá Muriente
2022 Foreign in a domestic sense, Flaherty Seminar- w/Sofía Gallisá Muriente
2022 Foreign in a domestic sense, BlackStarFilm Festival, Philadelphia, USA - w/ Sofía Gallisá Muriente
2022 Foreign in a domestic sense, Amant, Brooklyn, NY
2021 Paro Tríptico, Proyecciones Caseras, curated by Akili Tomassino, Puerto Rico
2020 Cine Nueva Onda, Los Ángeles Latin America Cinematheque, Los Ángeles, CA
CURATION AND ORGANIZING
2026 An Archive Immune to Dispossession, Virtual Forum - in collaboration with Sofía Gallisá Muriente
2025 Archipiélago Fílmico, Cuerpos Proscritos, Ciudad de México, México
COLLECTIONS
KADIST, San Francisco, CA & Paris, FR
EDUCATION
2020 MFADirecting,Theatre,CaliforniaInstituteof theArts
2013 BFAActing, Experimental Theatre Wing, Tisch School of the Arts, NYU
TEXTS ABOUT MY WORK
2026 Venice New Generation: Natalia Lassalle-Morillo and her mother reframe
Puerto Rico’s History, Eva Díaz for Frieze Magazine
2026 Koyo Kouoh reframes the Global South in Arsenale, Zian Chen for Ocula
2026 Wrapped in the Spiral: Natalia Lassalle-Morillo on Creation and
Collaboration Elizabeth Polanco for Public Books
2025 Rican(acments): Mourning, Kinship and Existential Waiting in Natalia
Lassalle Morillo's En Parábola/Conversations on Tragedy by Isabel Padilla for CENTRO Journal
2025 Cassandra Mayela Allen x Natalia Lassalle-Morillo in conversation for Elephant Magazine
2024 Entre estas aguas by Elisa Ayorinde Peebles
2024 Foreign in a domestic sense, by Bettina Pérez for CMAG
2024 Foreign in a domestic sense, by Didier Morelli for Ciel Variable
2024 Voces anfibias, voces de agua by fernanda ramos mena for Artishock 2024 Water is a word you say with others by Ignacio Szmulewicz for Millenium Film Journal
2024 Diaspora’s Magic Mirror, by Carina del Valle Schorske for Broadcast
2024 En Parábola/Conversations on Tragedy (Part I) Review, by Caitlin Anklam for the Brooklyn Rail
2024 En Parábola/Conversations on Tragedy (Part I) Review, by Anne Cheng, for Screenslate
2021 Mira el mar: Reflections on Natalia Lassalle-Morillo’s Retiro, by Monica Uzcerowicz for Burnaway Magazine
PUBLICATIONS
2023 Documentando lo in documentable, Observatorio de Lagunas, Editorial Educadora Emergente
2023 Slow dancing together, written with Sofía Gallisá Muriente for Springerin Magazine
2023 A region in the mind, Terrenos y Cuentos: G.Rosa Rey in conversation with Natalia Lassalle-Morilo, for Latinx Project
2021 Border Theatrics, Dolce Still Criollo
TALKS AND PRESENTATIONS
2026 Traverse Waves Symposium, Ford Foundation, NY
2025 Una Antígona que se desborda al Caribe , Seminario de Filosofía Ludwig Schajowicz, UPR, PR
2025 Affective Geographies, with Ignacio Smulewicz, Il Posto, Santiago, Chile
2025 Making Home: Shaping our understanding of home, Cooper Hewitt, NY w/ Sofía Gallisá Muriente & Reniel Rodríguez Ramos
2024 Sites of Rehearsal, Amant Foundation, NY
2024 Between Memory and Image, with Génesis Báez and Lacey Lennon, Slash Art, San Francisco, CA
2023 Sites of Rehearsal, with Sophie Cavoulacos, UnionDocs, NY
2023 Herstories and a Collaborative Future Beyond Tragedy, with Iris Morales, Amant, NY
2024 Lessons in Living Otherwise, Lightwork, Syracuse, NY w/ Sofía Gallisá Muriente
2022 Reimagining Land from a Distance w/ Ali Rosa-Salas, Amant, NY
2022 Geografías Afectivas, Museo Cabañas, Guadalajara MX
2021 Behind the Lens, Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago
2018 En Parábola, Conversation with Awilda Sterling, Gloria María Morillo, Diagonal, San Juan, P