Joliz Dela Peña, also known as JDP 2009, is an interdisciplinary artist from the Philippines, currently based in Tiohtià: ke/Montreal. Dela Peña is a self-taught artist whose mediums vary from painting, performance art, and alternative photography. She is currently exploring the art of alternative photography with cyanotype and has two ongoing series entitled “Moving Self-Portraitures” and "Dito sa San Jacinto, Doon sa Santo Tomas". From time to time, Dela Pena also performs live conceptual art pieces that tackles varying themes that uses her body and senses as the working medium.
Although her practice constantly changes, her works predominantly explore the discomfort of social constructs among people of color. She uses her art and body as a bridge to tackle subjects ranging from social injustices and stereotypes, sexuality/eroticism, and celebration of her cultural roots. Shown through her recent works, she attempts to translate fragmented memoirs, both from her personal life and borrowed, as a first-generation immigrant into a bigger universal perception that the audience relates and/or connects to.
Dela Peña has previously exhibited at WIP gallery (The ‘i’ Word, 2020), Celine Bureau (Within There Is a Chair, Take a Seat, 2020) and Somewhere gallery (Mementos of Self).