Erika Ordos (she/they) is a Venezuelan artist who investigates the body as a site of struggle and a vehicle for freedom. Their current work explores collective memory and radical vulnerability. Through the storytelling workshop series Mi Propio Beta, they collaborate with newly arrived fellow Venezuelans in Chicago, documenting their journeys across the continent, their experiences with the U.S. immigration system, and the trauma of deportation. This archive preserves the voices of those who, having shared this path, have since been returned to Venezuela, ensuring that their stories remain part of our collective history.
Parallel to this project her own performative practice explores the “psychological nude.” In these performances, Ordos seeks the maximum exposure of emotional fragility. Drawing from the current crises afflicting their peers which deeply impacts their own psyche, their work is not propaganda; it is a confrontation of silence and power. By integrating poetry with installation, they create spaces of autonomy where viewers participate in a rite of disobedience. Their goal is to build a legacy for future historians to tell the story our current reality, linking social record-keeping with the most intimate liberation of the self.
Featured Artworks
Fleshly Face, 2023
Image by Jules Zinn
Ars Erotica, 2023
Image by Rolando Sepúlveda III
Blink, 2022
Image by Lisa Greene
A Mother's Song / Variations on the Vulture, 2025
Image by Colectivo Multipolar
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Venezuelans in Chicago / Life Stories DCG, 2025
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Song to the Mother, 2025
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Venezuelans in Chicago / Life Stories Michell, 2025