Artists
Studio Lenca

El Salvador, b. 1986

Studio Lenca, also known as José Campos, is an artist from El Salvador living and working in the UK. He was born in La Paz, El Salvador and, like many other, he had to flee the country during its violent civil war in the late 1980’s. He illegally travelled by land, with his mother, to San Francisco, California. He grew up in this city as a queer minority, in the gaze of a strictly conservative administration as an undocumented ‘alien’.

In 2007, he found refuge in the UK and became a British Citizen. This experience of being uprooted serves as a framework for his ideas, that are to be read by others, as themes of identity, belonging and oppression are universal.

As a queer member of the Latin diaspora , Jose’s work is focused on ideas surrounding difference, knowledge and visibility. His pieces often start through personal memories, creative activism or are underpinned by different forms of praxis.