Victor “Marka27” Quiñonez: Elevar La Cultura

Elevar La Cultura is an immersive sculptural installation featuring a twenty-two-foot-tall pyramid built from the objects of everyday hustle—ice coolers reborn as icons and fused with ancestral textiles, sacred symbols, and mural work. Created by Victor “Marka27” Quiñonez, a Brooklyn-based artist with Boston roots, Elevar La Cultura stands as both a monument and an offering, fusing street aesthetics, ancestral iconography, and contemporary storytelling into a powerful visual language that uplifts the voices too often left out of traditional narratives. 

Originally commissioned by The Shed in New York City, Elevar La Cultura debuted this past July as part of the organization’s annual Open Call program, curated by Deja Belardo, Associate Curator of Civic Programs and Visual Art at The Shed. Belardo selected Quiñonez as one of twelve groundbreaking artists reimagining identity and resistance through contemporary art. Inspired by the beauty and resilience of immigrant street vendors and undocumented workers across the country, this artwork honors the creativity, labor, and survivance that fuel resilience and build legacy within many hard-working and vulnerable communities.

For Quiñonez, coolers doubled as both conceptual and material building blocks for Elevar La Cultura. “Most people see the cooler as a tool for leisure, not for survival; it’s for barbecues, tailgating, and celebrations. But for immigrant communities, the cooler is a tool and symbol for opportunity and independence. In every major city, you see families and vendors selling fruit, food, and water out of these coolers on the streets and in subway stations. They’re a necessity for survival and a way to start an honest living,” the artist shares.