Sam Frésquez

At its core, Sam Frésquez’s practice is linked to the dichotomy of public versus private. Her work interrogates the social arrangements that structure gender, sexuality, and the intimacies of private life. Frésquez asks us to consider the ways that we present ourselves to the outside world and how this public presentation might differ from our private experiences.Frésquez responds to issues of vulnerability and resilience through the lens of gender, themes that have recurred in the artist’s work. She examines the rigid and hyper-masculine culture surrounding NASCAR through performance and sculptural installation. Frésquez first began working with this subject in a previous series in which she introduced the fictional character, “the first Latina NASCAR driver.” In past performances the character is seen in iconic postures of celebration, such as spraying champagne or waving a flag.

Frésquez graduated in 2019 from Arizona State University with a bachelors of fine arts in interdisciplinary art; and graduated from Yale University in 2025 with an MFA in sculpture. Most recently, she was included in Get in The Game: Sports, Art, and Culture at SFMoMA, which is now on exhibition at the Perez Art Museum in Miami and will soon travel to Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art in Arkansas. Her current exhibition Spatial Poems is on exhibition at Mass MOCA. She has exhibited work at institutions including the Phoenix Art Museum, the Tucson Museum of Contemporary Art, the Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, and has been the recipient of artist residencies at Xico Galeria, the Haystack Mountain School, New York Arts Practicum, MASS MoCA, and CALA Alliance.