Mercury, artist in residence, Las Casas de la Selva, Patillas, Puerto Rico, March 2026
Mercury is a second-generation Boricua artist and activist based in Hartford, Connecticut, working across disciplines with a focus on site-specific installation. Their practice is situational, shaped by available materials and grounded in themes of Bori identity, language, and the urgency of the present moment. Alongside their art, Mercury engages directly with housing issues, addressing the impacts of gentrification through creative and community-based approaches.
For the past four years, Mercury has spent winters at Las Casas de la Selva, connecting with the land through both conservation work and art-making that responds to the surrounding environment. Their time here reflects a deeper process of reconnection to Puerto Rico as part of the diaspora experience.
Mercury is now developing a vision for a reciprocal residency exchange, linking diasporic artists from U.S. cities with Caribbean-based creatives. Their work moves between place, identity, and possibility, with a dream that reaches as far as outer space.
@mercury___________________ yrucrem.com
Mercury at Las Casas de la Selva, Patillas, Puerto Rico, March 2026
At a time when the world feels increasingly fractured, we are reminded why places like Las Casas de la Selva matter, and we are very glad to welcome Mercury into residence with us.
Residency here is not about retreat in the conventional sense. It is about immersion. Living inside a forest that is constantly in motion. Growth, decay, regeneration, pressure, release. The rainforest does not offer stillness so much as it offers continuity, and in that continuity there is space to think, to feel, and to respond. In moments of global unrest, the role of the artist becomes sharper. Not to explain the world, but to witness it, to translate it, and sometimes to sit with what cannot be resolved.
Having Mercury here now brings another layer of observation into the work of Las Casas, where science, forestry, and lived experience are already in dialogue. Their presence matters. Not as an addition, but as part of an ongoing process. The forest holds many forms of intelligence. Artistic practice is one of them.
We look forward to seeing what emerges.
Other work by Mercury
Snowball is an ongoing performance in which Mercury attends art fairs throughout miami and new york wearing a handmade reproduction of joseph beuys’ felt suit. Once inside the art fair, they sit in high traffic areas peddling live drawings to passersby. Mercury neither asks permission nor announces themselves when performing this piece. Selling art at an art event without permission, even in the guise of performance, doesn’t usually go over well with organizers, so Mercury is usually escorted out by security.
Photos courtesy of Mercury and 3t
