Today we’d like to introduce you to SONIA.
Hi SONIA, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
I grew up in Honduras, surrounded by a huge family in a strict religious background. Despite my rigid environment I was always the free spirit and had to my parents’ grief strong opinions and lifestyle choices. I wanted to study art but I knew that it wasn’t going to be a possibility for me so I went to architecture school and I fell in love with form, design and human-centric spaces. Built my own contracting/design business and became a college professor. In college I was always laser focused on keeping my GPA so I could apply to a scholarship for a master’s program and 5 years after I graduated, I became part of the prestigious Chevening program and got my masters in Interior Design in London. That experience changed how I viewed my own professional practice, when I graduated, I moved to Dallas, Texas. My work emerged from a fascination with storytelling through space, identity, and visual narratives. Over the years, I’ve increasingly focused on becoming a multidisciplinary machine, breaking barriers between mediums and exploring how concepts can transcend drawing, sculpture, projection, and performance art. While studying in London, I developed a performance art piece titled The Egg and the City, where I walked through public spaces enclosed within a human-sized papier-mâché egg to critique the privatization and loss of genuine public areas. This deeply impacted my current work, often embodied in immersive installations blending analog and digital techniques. I have also returned to my passion for education teaching workshops across the city of Dallas based on architecture, design and space. My latest exhibition, Texicana, opens on June 21 at the Latino Cultural Center in Dallas and continues through July 19, 2025. It features workshops such as “Mapping: Space and Identity” on June 28 and “Cuentitos: Architecture and Memory” on July 12, alongside my CAP workshops throughout Dallas, highlighting my ongoing dedication to community involvement and accessible art experiences.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
In Honduras, surrounded by a huge family in a strict religious background. Despite my rigid environment I was always the free spirit and had to my parents’ grief strong opinions and lifestyle choices. I wanted to study art but I knew that it wasn’t going to be a possibility for me so I went to architecture school and I fell in love with form, design and human-centric spaces. Built my own contracting/design business and became a college professor. In college I was always laser focused on keeping my GPA so I could apply to a scholarship for a master’s program and 5 years after I graduated, I became part of the prestigious Chevening program and got my masters in Interior Design in London. That experience changed how I viewed my own professional practice, when I graduated, I moved to Dallas, Texas. My work emerged from a fascination with storytelling through space, identity, and visual narratives. Over the years, I’ve increasingly focused on becoming a multidisciplinary machine, breaking barriers between mediums and exploring how concepts can transcend drawing, sculpture, projection, and performance art. While studying in London, I developed a performance art piece titled The Egg and the City, where I walked through public spaces enclosed within a human-sized papier-mâché egg to critique the privatization and loss of genuine public areas. This deeply impacted my current work, often embodied in immersive installations blending analog and digital techniques. I have also returned to my passion for education teaching workshops across the city of Dallas based on architecture, design and space. My latest exhibition, Texicana, opens on June 21 at the Latino Cultural Center in Dallas and continues through July 19, 2025. It features workshops such as “Mapping: Space and Identity” on June 28 and “Cuentitos: Architecture and Memory” on July 12, alongside my CAP workshops throughout Dallas, highlighting my ongoing dedication to community involvement and accessible art experiences.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
As an artist and architect, my practice revolves around philosophical ideas, democratizing art and design. Using everyday materials to activate cultural memory and personal narratives.My work navigates the balance between form and meaning and craft breaking disciplinary boundaries. Prioritizing accessibility both in concept as material, I want the public to engage with their own ideas of beauty, identity and space in a personal lens through shared collective experiences. Texicana marks my first solo exhibit in the United States, featuring projection-mapped hand-drawn scenes that explore themes of migration, nostalgia, and cultural identity through Americana. I want to elevate the overlooked, make room for playful contradictions, whimsy as I insist on the poetic possibilities of the mundane.
“Art is not a notion but a motion.” Deleuze & Guatarri, A Thousand Plateaus
What were you like growing up?
As a kid, I was immersed in my own little world, instead of clothes in my closet I created a fort where I would write poems, both happy and angry ones. As the fourth of five siblings, standing out and finding my voice was essential. My parents owned a bookstore, where I spent countless hours surrounded by stories and visuals that nurtured my imagination. My fascination with aesthetics manifested early; mostly based on fashion I loved wearing fun colorful clothes. I was obsessed with having quirky strange items, loved to dance and was always down to be part of any event organization. I thrived in activities that placed me in the spotlight, from dancing and singing to school events that showcased my artistic abilities. This early affinity for beauty, performance, and storytelling profoundly shaped my identity and laid the foundation for my never-ending interest in learning new mediums and crafts.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://Sonmedina.com
- Instagram: sonmedina.redlemon
Image Credits
Portrait photos with projections
Photographer & MUA: Mateus Moura @immi.studio
