ABOUT
Ostia creates installations, sculptures, and moving-image works that reimagine our relationship to living materials and the unseen systems that shape us. Rooted in her background in photography and film, her practice is driven by a heightened sense of aesthetics—an attention to texture, form, and transformation that she expands through microbes, bacterial cellulose, a resin-like biodegradable materials, and upcycle matter. Ostia’s work unfolds in the space between art and science, proposing new modes of embodiment and interspecies exchange.She constructs environments that move from the microscopic to the monumental, revealing the entanglement of material and immaterial forces. Through processes of enfolding and unfolding, she invites viewers to encounter the familiar from a destabilized perspective—one where organisms, bodies, and technologies meet on shifting ground.
Ostia has exhibited internationally at museums, art fairs, and experimental film screenings across China, Cuba, France, Italy, Peru, Russia, and the United States.
She holds an Associate Degree in Spatial Design from The Fashion Institute of Technology, a BFA from Parsons School of Design, and a Master’s from NYU. Committed to expanding access to biomaterials education, she has led workshops on BioArt and has been a guest lecturer at NYU, Parsons, FIT, RISD, Genspace, and in Beijing. Her research on Biodesign Education has been published by Cambridge University Press. Ostia’s work has been supported by several grants including from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, she is the inaugural recipient of the Marco Castro Cosio, Media, Art and Technology Fellowship from Columbia University’s Brown Institute.
ARTIST STATEMENT
My practice exists at the intersection of art, science, and ecological/material storytelling, exploring how human and non-human bodies coexist through sensorial encounters rooted in listening, symbiosis, and adaptivity. I am particularly interested in how emerging technologies can help us better understand, respect, and ultimately care for the living systems that support life on Earth. This practice is both speculative and grounded: asking what can emerge when we treat other species and microorganisms not as resources, but as intelligent collaborators in their own right. I believe art possesses the dual power to entertain and plant the seeds of curiosity.
My focus towards biological materials, was inspired by extensive travel and the distressing sight of plastics and pollution in the world’s most pristine environments.In an era marked by ecological collapse, I want to open spaces of possibility—attuning to the rhythms, fragilities, and resilience of the more-than-human world.Through installations, biofabrication, and moving images, I construct new universes, inviting audiences into immersive environments where perception, sensation, and emotion meet.
I find a deep sense of peace in the solace of collaborating with living materials. As a migrant, my experience of displacement fuels a deep-seated desire to understand and connect with people beyond traditional physical spaces, exploring new dimensions in materials, interconnections, and identity.
*Complete CV upon request
Biennial Exhibitions
2025 New York Latin American Art Triennial, BronxArtSpace, NY, USA
2025 XV Edition Florence Biennale, Fortezza da Basso, Florence, Italy
2024 VideoAkt Bienal Internacional de Arte de los Nuevos Medios, Lima, Peru
2024 15th Havana Biennial, “Shared Horizons”, Wilfredo Lam Centre for Contemporary Art, Havana, Cuba
2024 5th Edition Every Woman Biennial, La Mama Galleria, NY, USA
Two-person Exhibition
2018 Du·et, Caravaglia Studio, NY, USA
Group Shows (Selection)
2025 Living Matter, Shifting Future, Brooklyn Army Terminal, NY, USA (commission)
2025 NYCxDesign, Shifting Matter, Roca Tile, NY, USA
2025 Silent Auction, Kurimanzutto, NY, USA (sold)
2024 A World Water Map, Swale House – Governors Island, NY, USA
2023 Embodied Futures & the Ecology of Care, BioBat Art Space, NY, USA (commission)
2023 GUI/GOOEY, Plexus Projects (online)
2019 Intertwine, Veronica Studio, NY, USA
2016 Interpretation: Monumental Public Space & The Human, State Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg, Russia
2016 Photography, Milk Gallery, New York, NY, USA
2015 Photography as a New Document, NY, USA
2012 The Soul of Self Portrait, Fred Pomerantz Art and Design Center, NY, USA
Awards, Grants & Fellowships
2025 Marco Castro Cosio, Media, Art & Technology Fellow @ Brown Institute for Media Innovation, Columbia University
2024 Foundation for Contemporary Arts, Emergency Grant
2023 NYU Green Grant
2022 NYU Sustainability Grant
2022 Prototyping Fund + NYC Future Manufacturing Collective, Grant Recipient
2020 United States Artists, Grant Recipient
2015 Alexia Foundation, Photography as Agent of Change, NY, USA
2013 SEGD, Honorable Mention
2012 Photo District News, Winner
Residencies
2026 (Forthcoming)
2025 BioBat Art Space, Artist in Residence
2024 Swale Lab + Urban Soils Institute
2024 New York Latin American Art Triennial
Selected Presentations & Talks
2025 New York Latin American Art Triennial, Lehman Community College, NY, USA
2025 International Genetically Engineered Machine (iGEM), Bio-Futurism and Synthetic Aesthetics, Paris, France
2025 Fashion Institute of Technology, Charting a Course Toward Circularity, NY, USA
2024 De Bebida a Biomaterial, Havana, Cuba
2024 Eco-Imagination, Beijing, China
2024 BioBat Art Space, Artist Panel Discussion, NY, USA
2023 New York Public Library, Artists Studio Community Series (online)
2023 MIT Global Community Bio Summit. Artist Talk: Artists in Laboratories (online)
2015 International Center of Photography, Artist Talk: Documentary Media & Practice, NY, USA
Teaching, Lectures & Workshops
2023 – Present, Genspace (Biomaterials + Forecasting, Break Into Biotech Program)
2025 – 2026 Parsons The New School, Guest Lecturer
2026 Stony Brook, Guest Lecturer
2026 Columbia University, Guest Lecturer
2025 Rhode Island School of Design, Guest Lecturer
2024 Baruch High School, Teaching Artist, SMART Project
2024 Sustainable Art Practice: Living Materials, Biomaterials & the Future of Art Making, Beijing, China
2023 – 2025 Union Square Park, Earth Day Festival, in partnership with March for Science
2022 – 2023 New York University – ITP Camp, Sustainable Art Practice & Open Space + Artist in Laboratories
2022 NYU Tandon School of Engineering MakerSpace, Painting with Yeast
2015 International Center of Photography, Teaching Assistant to Andre Lambertson
2014 International Center of Photography, Teaching Assistant
Research
Ostia, L. (2024). Sustainable Art Practice: The Future of Biodesign Education. Cambridge Open Engage. doi:10.33774/coe-2024-hvr17
Vaquero, L., Groves, K., Muñoz-Vidal, E. L., James, K., Marlor, J. L., McIntyre, L., Ostia, L., Ripollés, P. (2025). Studying the effects of digital arts-based interventions on teenagers’ social media usage, brain connectivity, and mental health: study protocol of the SMART project. European Journal of Psychotraumatology, 16(1). https://doi.org/10.1080/20008066.2025.2550079
Education
New York University, Tisch School of the Arts — Master’s Degree, Interactive Telecommunications (ITP), USA
Parsons, The New School of Design — Bachelor of Fine Arts, Photography & Media Studies (Magna Cum Laude), USA
Fashion Institute of Technology — Associate in Applied Science, Spatial Experience Design (Magna Cum Laude), USA
Diploma: Biological Pedagogies: Art, Biology and Design (online)
Certificate: CITI Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative, Social & Behavioral Research I
Readings +
Brown Institute
Future Materials Bank
FIT