In the heart of Oakland, California, Monica Canilao spends her days stitching, painting, printing, and breathing life into the refuse that dominates our time and place. Moving across media, sometimes with friends and sometimes alone, Canilao makes a delicate visual record of the personal and communal. She received a BFA from California College of Arts and Crafts and has shown in galleries, community spaces, and abandoned places worldwide. Recent projects include the solo show Born from Ruins, Subliminal Projects, Los Angeles, CA, USA; building a new piece and installation, Tomb, for The Resonance Show at The Headscapes Warehouse, NYC; The Provocateurs, an exhibition showing new works as well as an editioned print at the Arts Alliance, Chicago, IL, USA; building and painting a food stand in collaboration with the artist Doodles as part of the Painted Desert Project on the Navajo Nations reservation, Arizona, USA; and painting murals for the Djerba Hood project in Tunisia (all 2014). Ongoing projects include a Shibari-inspired collaborative photographic project involving elaborate sets and costumes and The Seafoam Palace Museum of Curiosities in Detroit, MI, USA, to which Canilao travelled this summer to build and hang the museum's front sign. Canilao has just released a new monographic book of works, entitled PAPER BIRDS//LOST FACES.