Ck Ledesma Borrero

Ck Ledesma Borrero is an interdisciplinary artist, educator, and curator originally from San Juan, Puerto Rico, now living and working in Wisconsin for nearly two decades. Their artwork is rooted in community engagement and social practice, using performance, sculpture, and multimedia approaches to create experiences that expand the definition of art beyond the object and into the realm of dialogue and collective meaning outside of gallery walls. A core method in their process is call and response: creating work that is in dialogue with—and responsive to—social conditions, equity, and contemporary life.

Ledesma Borrero is the owner of satélite gallery in Milwaukee, an experimental space focused on underrepresented perspectives and contributes their leadership to the field through service on boards including Woodland Pattern Book Center and the Milwaukee Art Museum Community Advisory Board. As an educator, they have served as an adjunct professor at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design and as a guest lecturer at institutions including the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee, UW-LaCrosse, and Harvard University, among others.

They are a Milwaukee Business Journal 40 Under 40 honoree, Mildred L. Harpole Milwaukee Artist of the Year, and an Established Artist Mary L. Nohl Fellow. They have held artist residencies with Milwaukee’s 16th Street Business Improvement District and the Milwaukee Public Library. Their work has been presented nationally and internationally, including at the John Michael Kohler Art Center, Haggerty Museum of Art, Racine Art Museum, and through the Museums Association of the Caribbean–and, most notably, within our communities.