meet mariana
Mariana Acosta Burns is a multimedia artist and designer whose practice bridges Mesoamerican and Latin American visual traditions and narratives with contemporary digital art, animation, and illustration. Born and raised in Estado de México and California-based immigrant, she draws from pre-hispanic visual traditions and the nomadic character of her heritage to create work that centers Latin American stories and the communities who live them. She is the founder of Kukul Estudio; her work has been exhibited at the Chan Zuckerberg Community Space in Redwood City and screened at festivals across the US and Latin America.
Stories keep cultures alive. Mariana's art bridges ancestral and contemporary methods, honoring the visual languages our ancestors left us while making space for the voices still waiting to be heard.
Memory is not the past; it's how we build the future.
ni de aquí ni de allá, de todas partes
Recognition & Awards
Her experimental short film In the Beginning has been selected for film festivals across the United States and Mexico, and screened at prominent cultural venues. Recognition includes the Chadwick Okamoto Award for diverse storytelling and the Student Leadership Award at De Anza College.
She is a founding member of the cooperative creative studio, developing and collaborating in projects with social and cultural focus that amplify underrepresented voices and communities across the continent.
A Nomad's Home at CZI
A Nomad's Home is a collection of three mini amoxtlis in traditional screenfold format, exhibited at the Chan Zuckerberg Community Space in Redwood City, curated by the Redwood City Parks & Arts Foundation. Each piece was digitally designed and hand-painted with acrylics on artisanal amate paper, applying tlacuilolli—the ancestral prehispanic visual language—to document immigrant experiences in San Mateo County.
