LUISA MESA
About
Bio
Luisa Mesa is a Miami-based Cuban-American artist whose work explores contemplative abstraction through drawing, painting, glass, and mixed media.
She earned her BFA at Florida International University, where she concentrated in photography and painting. It was during this time that she developed the intuitive, repetitive drawing practice that still shapes her organic, meditative structures today.
Luisa’s work has been exhibited widely and is included in notable private, corporate, and hospitality collections, including the Four Seasons Dubai, Morgan Stanley, Memorial Sloan Kettering, and Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines.
Artist Statement
I make work that studies the quiet, internal structures of human experience. Using line, color, and geometric patterns, I explore how complex forms build up, shift, and eventually hold together. My process is entirely unplanned. I don’t sketch or map out the final composition; instead, the work develops through repetitive movement and close attention to the surface in front of me.
Working across paper, canvas, wood panel, and glass is essential to my practice because each surface receives a mark differently. Paper offers intimacy and immediacy. Canvas allows for atmosphere and depth. Wood brings a grounded, tactile presence, while glass introduces a sense of suspended space. These materials dictate how my lines move, how the color settles, and how the final piece breathes.
I am naturally drawn to subtle, quiet environments. By layering soft color fields and shifting densities, I build visual spaces that require slower, more deliberate viewing. I want to invite people to slow down and follow a single line as it gathers, circles, or dissolves into the background.
This process is about emergence. Shapes develop on the surface much like thoughts or emotions do—gradually and rhythmically, revealing their own internal logic only after hours of repetition. While the final images often echo biomorphic or astronomical structures, I never set out to illustrate those concepts. The forms happen naturally when I sit still with the work long enough.
Ultimately, I see each piece as an invitation to pause. I have no desire to force a specific interpretation or narrative onto the viewer. My only goal is to offer a moment of stillness, a feeling of quiet recognition, or the subtle sense that an underlying order is showing itself.
LUISA MESA
Miami, Florida | luisa@luisamesa.com | www.luisamesa.com
EDUCATION
2006 B.F.A., Painting, Florida International University, Miami, Florida
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2018 Artwork of Luisa Mesa, Sonesta Coconut Grove, CGAF Gallery, Coconut Grove, Florida
2016 Spring Show, Concept 5 Studios, Wynwood, Florida
2011 Summer Show - A Solo Exhibition by Luisa Mesa, CGAF Gallery, Coconut Grove, Florida
2010 Introspections, Highlands MOTA, Sebring, Florida
2009 Meditations, Connections, Fragmentation, Duane Reed Gallery, St. Louis, Missouri
2006 Full Circle: A Journey Within, Diaspora Vibe Gallery, Miami, Florida
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, New York
Four Seasons Dubai, United Arab Emirates
Morgan Stanley, New York, New York
Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Oasis of the Seas
Levine Children’s Hospital, Charlotte, North Carolina
Miami-Dade Public Library - North Dade Regional Branch, Miami, Florida
Miami Dade College, Miami, Florida
Foley & Lardner LLP
Florida East Coast Realty, 2020 Ponce de Leon Building
Pinnacle Housing Group, Postmaster Building, Miami, Florida
Hamilton On The Bay, Miami, Florida
Sunset Harbor Condominium, Miami Beach, Florida
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2026 Circular Reflections, Westchester Regional Library, Miami, Florida
2025 Between two Dreams, Drew Marc Gallery, Tampa, Florida
2025 Circular Reflections, Jorge A. Sardinas Gallery, Saint Thomas University, Miami, Florida
2024 Portals and Passages, MVA Gallery, Bethlehem, Pennsylvania
2024 Shared Thought, Collaborating with AI, Columbia City Gallery, Seattle, Washington
2023 Art and Objects, MAC Fine Art, Delray Beach, Florida
2022 About Women, MAC Fine Art, Delray Beach, Florida
2022 Beyond the Woods, Pinecrest Gardens, Miami, Florida
2022 Florida: In Transformation, Imagine Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida
2020 Expressions of a Pandemic, CMN Artist Series, Coral Gables Museum, Coral Gables, Florida
2019 Beirut Art Fair 2019, South Border Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
2019 Resonate: A Polyphonic Prospect, Coral Gables Museum, Coral Gables, Florida
2018 Beirut Art Fair 2018, South Border Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
2018 Latin American Art in Beirut, Arthaus International Gemmayzeh / South Border Gallery, Beirut, Lebanon
2018 Reference Cited, FIU Green Library, Miami, Florida; curated by Miguel Rodez
2017 Artexpo New York, Chal Maz Fine Art and DATG Concept, New York, New York
2015 Aqua Art Fair / Art Basel, Cancio Contemporary, Miami Beach, Florida
2015 Drawing Excellence, Miguel Rodez Art Projects, Miami, Florida
2015 Art Wynwood, The McLoughlin Gallery, San Francisco, California
2014 Affordable Art Fair, Cancio Contemporary, New York, New York
2014 Summer Show, Octavia Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana
2014 Affordable Art Fair, Cancio Contemporary, London, England
2013 National Juried Exhibition, First Street Gallery, New York, New York; juror Donald KuspitLuisa Mesa | Curriculum Vitae | 2
2013 Cuba Connection: Contemporary Cuban and Cuban-American Art, Octavia Gallery, New Orleans, Louisiana
2012 All About Art: Fine Art Fundraising Auction, The Frost Art Museum, Miami, Florida
2012 Homage: Past Influences, Target Gallery - Torpedo Factory Art Center, Alexandria, Virginia
2012 LAYERING: Barbara Strasen, Luisa Mesa, Institute for Genetic Medicine Art Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California
2012 10th National Juried Show, Ceres Gallery, Chelsea, New York; juror Samantha Rippner, Curator, The Metropolitan Museum, New York
2010 Aqua Art Fair / Art Basel, Cancio Contemporary, Miami Beach, Florida
2009 First Juried Exhibition of the Inaugural Year, Florida Museum for Women Artists, Deland, Florida
2008 Paraphernalia: A Nationally Juried Exhibition, Bakehouse Art Complex, Miami, Florida; curators Peter Boswell, Carol Damian, Bernice Steinbaum
2008 Far from Home: The Migration Experience in Latin America and the Caribbean, IDB Cultural Center, Washington, D.C.
2008 Extended Boundary: Latin American and Caribbean Artists in Miami, IDB Cultural Center Gallery, Washington, D.C.
2006 Exit Inside Out, Museo Universidad Sagrado Corazon, San Juan, Puerto Rico
2006 Hispanic Heritage Month 2006, Florida State Capitol Rotunda, Tallahassee, Florida
2006 Art Miami 2006, Juried Artist - Diaspora Vibe Gallery, International Currents, Miami Beach, Florida
AWARDS & HONORS
2022 Third Prize, Florida: In Transformation, Imagine Museum, St. Petersburg, Florida
2009 First Prize, Art 2009, Highlands Museum of the Arts, Sebring, Florida; juror Ken Rollins
2007 Best in Show, Celebration 21, Bakehouse Art Complex, Miami, Florida; juror Carol Damian
2001 Visual Arts Excellence Award, Honors Day 2001, Miami Dade College, Miami, Florida
1999 Honors Scholarship Award, Miami Dade College, Miami, Florida
RESIDENCIES & SERVICE
2010 Artist Residency, Royal Caribbean Cruise Lines, Oasis of the Seas
2007-2011 Artist in Residence, ArtCenter/South Florida, Miami Beach, Florida
2007-2010 Board Member, ArtCenter/South Florida
2001-2006 Bakehouse Art Complex, Wynwood, Florida