Ada Trillo
Biography
Ada Trillo is a first-generation, Queer Mexican American artist who combines documentary and fine art elements in her photography. A native of the US-Mexican border raised in the Juarez-El Paso binational metroplex, her work is informed by a deep interest in national and metaphorical borders and modernization processes. She has focused on walls of inclusion and exclusion, such as forced prostitution, climate, and violence-related international migration, and US internal exclusions resulting from long-standing barriers of race and class. Trillo's goal is to bring attention to the impact of these borders on exploited and marginalized people and amplify their voices.
Trillo's work is in Institutions and private collections, including, The Library of Congress, The Philadelphia Museum of Art, and The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Some of their awards include The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage Fellowship (2022), The Eddie Adams Workshop Canon Award (2022), The Female In Focus 2020, and The Leeway Foundation Transformation Award. Trillo's work has appeared in publications such as The Guardian, Vogue, Smithsonian Magazine, and Mother Jones, among other publications. She was also awarded The Me & Eve Grant with the Center of Photographic Arts in Santa Fe and received First Place in editorial with the Tokyo International Foto Awards. Trillo has exhibited nationally and internationally in New York City, Philadelphia, Luxembourg, England, Italy, Germany, and Japan. They hold degrees from the Istituto Marangoni in Milan and Drexel University in Philadelphia.