New Growth: An Interview With Brittany Noriega

Brittany Noriega is a Kansas City based artist who will be showing her work in a solo exhibition beginning October 2021 and running through January 2022. Noriega is a multidisciplinary artist who works with a variety of mediums and styles.

“Every medium kind of has its own emotion and tells its own story,” she explained. “I like to do a little bit of everything.”

Noriega said much of her current series, New Growth, centers on emotions, community, and stories of overcoming obstacles. She said the pieces often explore her struggle to leave an abusive relationship and make a new life after. In 2015, she said her move from South Dakota back to Kansas City helped her finally get out of an abusive relationship—but she’s had to do a lot of processing and healing since then.

“(My art is) about overcoming things like that, overcoming trauma, overcoming the struggle, and kind of just starting over,” she said.

She said this newest series often centers on themes of balance—the good and bad, life and death.

“You can’t have one without the other,” she said.

Noriega said her subject matter is often the human form or nature, with some incorporation of stories from her own life and experiences—but she hasn’t always worked that way. She initially studied to be a tattoo artist, a field she worked in for a number of years, and that influence is still there for her. She said she works with the illustrative, bold style she learned there, but that her style has evolved over the years.

And while she said her work will continue to evolve, she also thinks certain themes will remain the same. “In some way, I’ll always be working with this theme of overcoming and new growth, becoming a new person,” she said.

During quarantine, Noriega said she’s continued to create art, often alongside her kids, Adaline and Liam. Her husband, Jesús, has kept his job during the pandemic, and Noriega said the day-to-day rhythms of their lives haven’t changed much aside from event cancellations. 

As she’s continued work, she said her kids have created right alongside her. “They do their own little projects right next to me,” she said. “They’re really interested in the whole process.”

As she continues to explore themes of balance, community, and healing, Noriega said she hopes to connect both to the artistic community in Kansas City and to her viewers.

“I own the work, I don’t own the reaction,” she said. “But I do hope to connect with people, and hopefully the emotions that I put into my work, people can connect with that.”

For her, creating art and creating community and connection have always gone together. She studied both studio art and sociology in college, so understanding life and connection through art seemed natural to her.

“I’ve always been interested in both and the way they can work together…and how we can connect that in art and help other people do the same,” she said.

Her sense of community has led her to work with the Safe and Welcoming Roeland Park group along with other community projects and activism groups. For her, art is its own kind of activism.

From graphics in articles to pieces that tackle complex topics in an accessible way, Noriega said art helps many different kinds of people be able to come together and engage with each other. 

“It helps people understand the world a little bit differently,” she said.

You can learn more about Noriega’s work on her website.