kaira.ray.villanueva@gmail.com
I’m a New Jersey/Montréal-based multimedia artist, game designer, and writer exploring the humanization of speculative and present environments through storytelling. I strongly believe that curiosity drives the craft and artistry. I have trained with Eileen Murphy in classical oil atelier techniques and was mentored under Clare Grill in New York City Crit Club’s Canopy program in 2023 for paintings.
I’m currently exploring the liminal space between animation and graphic novels to tell a long-form story, as well as tabletop role-playing games to break the expected linear forms of narrative. My work is a dystopian, weird, and political allegory. They sit in a space similar to my own, where I’m often pulled into thinking about my own infractions within the veiled, slowly revealing global supply chain of the capitalist market. They are benign warnings and one of my ways of morally navigating everyday systems biased toward certain groups more than others.
If you have read Infinite Jest and chuckled, or gaped at Travelers Among Mountains and Streams, thank you. I see you, as I also try to make my work question the line between the obliteration and exceptionalism of the human ego.
Three-Person Show (Visual Art)
2023, Fever Dream, SMUSH Gallery, Jersey City, NJ
Group Shows (Visual Art)
2026, Summer in the City: 10 Years in Deep Space, Deep Space Gallery, Jersey City, NJ
2026, She’s Like the Wind, Deep Space Gallery, Jersey City, NJ
2025, The Gigantic Miniature Show, Deep Space Gallery, Jersey City, NJ
2024, Dear April, Deep Space Gallery, Jersey City, NJ
2023, The Gigantic Miniature Show, Deep Space Gallery, Jersey City, NJ
2023, Friends of Liberty State Park, Art Fair 14C, Jersey City, NY
2023, Hangups II, SMUSH Gallery, Jersey City, NJ
2023, RASA, Active Space, Brooklyn, NY
2023, Zero to 90, SMUSH Gallery, Jersey City, NJ
2023, Artists of Today: Celebrating Women in the Arts, Artists of Today, Online Exhibition
2022, Hangups, SMUSH Gallery, Jersey City, NJ
2022, Can You Hear Me Now? An Interactive Experience in Womanhood, Artists of Today, West Chelsea Gallery, New York, NY
2021, Vulva: Deconstructing Femininity, House of Shadows, Tampa, FL
2021, Artists of Today: Holiday Show, Artists of Today, Gallery MC, New York, NY
2019, Fear, VºLITION Gallery, Orangeburg, NY
2019, Small Treasures, Maritime Garage Gallery, Norwalk, CT
2019, Technology and Social Good, Columbia University, New York, NY
2019, Artists of Today Summer Show, Artists of Today, Gallery MC, New York, NY
2018, Fantasy, Columbia University Post Crypt Gallery, New York, NY
Public Art (Visual Art)
2022, A Story of Floods: Augmented Mural, Boys and Girls Club, Atlantic City, NJ
2022, Earth eater, New York Poetry Festival, Governor’s Island, NY
2021, Go back to Earth, New York Poetry Festival, Governor’s Island, NY
Film Screenings
2023, A Story of Floods: Documentary, Noyes Garage, Atlantic City, NJ
2023, A Story of Floods: Documentary, Richard Stockton University, Atlantic City, NJ
Awards and Residencies
2022, Grant Winner, New Jersey Climate Resiliency Public Art
2019, 1st Place Juried Show, Artists of Today
2019, Fusion Artist Residency, Ishikawa, Kaga, Japan
2015, Forbes 30 under 30 Games
2013, Technology Fellow, Entertainment Software Association
Speaking and Workshop
2023, Richard Stockton University - Intro to Documentary Screenwriting, Atlantic City, NJ
2021, Milk Press Happenings - Intro to Wire and Moss Sculpting
Education
2023, Canopy Program, NYC Crit Club
2021, BA. Human Rights, Specialization in Information Science, Columbia University
2014, AA. General Studies, Bergen Community College
Press
2026, Summer in the City by Tris McCall
2026, She’s Like the Wind by Tris McCall
2024, With “Dear April,” Deep Space Gallery Plunges Into Spring
2023, Imaginative Young Artists Take the Reins at Two Jersey City Fridays Art Shows by Tris McCall
2023, The Fifteen Best Art Shows of 2023 by Tris McCall
2023, Kaira Villanueva presents “A Story of Floods” documentary by By Esmeralda Rivera
2015, No Don’t Die by James Wolinsky
Collaborations
2019, Artwist.co