Lorena Molina
Artist/Educator/Curator
Lorena Molina is a Salvadoran multidisciplinary artist, educator, and curator. She is an Assistant Professor of Studio Art Practice at San Francisco State University and the founder and director of Third Space Gallery, a community space dedicated to supporting and highlighting BIPOC artists. Molina is also a founding member of Becoming Sticky, a collective with Central American artists Tesora Garcia and Martin Wannam that explores equatorial vision and Central American image-making.
At the core of her work is an exploration of spatial inequalities and the challenges that oppressed groups face in constructing place and establishing a sense of belonging. The work is driven by a deep sense of displacement experienced after a 12-year civil war forced her and her family to migrate to the United States. Most of her work stems from a need to find and build community in ways that are tender, accountable, and challenging, through difficult conversations that make everyone involved actively question their positions and privileges in society.
Molina was named a finalist for the 2026 SFMOMA SECA Art Award. Her awards, fellowships, and residencies include the Artpace International Artist-in-Residence Program, the Center for Photography at Woodstock (CPW) Woodstock AIR residency, the Kala Art Institute Fellowship, SF Camerawork FORECAST 2025, the Diversity of Views Fellowship, two Truth and Reconciliation Grants from ArtsWave, the FotoFocus Exhibition Grant, The Idea Fund, and Hot Picks by Smack Mellon.
Her work has been exhibited and performed nationally and internationally at venues including the Contemporary Arts Center (Cincinnati), Kemper Museum of Contemporary Art, Blaffer Art Museum, The Armory Show, EXPO Chicago, SF Camerawork, La Nueva Fábrica (Antigua, Guatemala), Southeast Museum of Photography, FSU Museum of Fine Arts, Rubin Center, Beijing Film Academy, Lawndale Art Center, Art League Houston, Berkeley Art Center, Root Division, Vox Populi, The Carnegie (Covington, KY), Assembly Projects, Wave Pool Gallery, and across the piazzas of Florence, Italy.
Her work has been reviewed and featured in Hyperallergic, LA TIMES, Glasstire, Eazel, The Wall Street Journal, The Careful Photograph with Tarrah Krajnak, Burnaway, Artillery, Ocula, Collector Daily, CAA Reviews, UnderMain, Movers and Makers, CityBeat, LENSCRATCH, Square Cylinder, AEQAI, Not Real Art, The Columbus Dispatch, BTW Berkshires, Latino News Network, Rice Thresher, The Daily Tar Heel, Syracuse New Times, The Daily Orange, and Document Journal, among others.
Her curatorial projects include Photography and Tenderness, co-curated with Eliza Gregory at Wave Pool Gallery; Learning Curve at Houston Center for Photography; Slow Burn at the Fine Arts Gallery at San Francisco State University; and Flowers for Here and On Belonging at Third Space Gallery.
In the classroom, she works with students to understand the way that images are laden with history and vocabulary. Images tell stories, but who gets to tell the story matters.
Molina received her MFA from the University of Minnesota in 2015 and her BFA from California State University, Fullerton in 2012.