Perla Segovia with the mixed-media work Hope Confined, Dignity Suppressed on view in Arizona Biennial 2020. Photo by Julius Schlosburg.
Perla Segovia’s artistic mission is to advocate for the value of immigrants and immigration to our nation. She aims to celebrate their strength, perseverance, dreams and sacrifices. She incorporates textiles and textile techniques into her work because they resonate with most viewers and therefore have the potential of being an effective tool of communication.
Segovia is a longtime TMA collaborator and featured artist. Recently she contributed to the community voices labels in the Kasser Family Wing of Latin American Art and was featured in the virtual TMA Gala 2021 program highlighting art, music, dance and culture from throughout Latin America and the Sonoran Desert region.
Perla Segovia shared some of her textile work in this video segment from TMA Gala 2021.
Two submissions by Segovia were selected for inclusion in Arizona Biennial 2020, on view at TMA from October 1, 2020 through January 10, 2021. In December she talked about her immigration-themed works in a virtual TMA program as part of a panel, along with artist Julia Arriola and Dr. Marianna Pegno, that addressed art-making and activism.
Segovia’s segment from a panel discussion about art-making and activism, presented through Zoom for TMA’s Free First Thursday on December 3, 2020.
About the Artist
Perla Segovia was born in Lima, Peru. During her early childhood she lived throughout Peru, from the big city to the mountainous rainforest to the desert coast. At the age of 10 she moved to the United States with her family and lived in rural North Carolina. Segovia’s travels did not end in the US; after graduating from North Carolina State University with a Bachelor of Science in Textile Technology she took a position as a handbag and shoe designer in Peru. Here is where she immersed herself back in her native culture, and got introduced to fused glass techniques.
After a few years of living in Peru, Segovia moved to Italy, traveled around Europe and became a certified Modellista or patternmaker. Furthermore, she has extensively trained in the glass arts and incorporates her knowledge of weaving and pattern making in this wonderfully manipulative medium. Segovia has also lived in Puerto Rico, Utah and Missouri and now resides in Arizona with her husband and their two children, where she is a Master of Fine Arts candidate at the University of Arizona.
