Sandra Mack-Valencia grew up in Colombia, where under the smell of oil paint, turpentine and linseed oil in her father’s studio, she developed a passion for the arts, in particular for painting and drawing. When she turned 16, her gift was the registration at the Escuela de Arte Eladio Velez, a local art school in Sandra’s neighborhood. Sandra received her BFA from the Universidad de Antioquia in 2000, and during her last year of college she collaborated with the Museum of Modern Art in Medellin, the Casa-Museo Pedro Nel Gomez and the Cultural Ministry in the development of an art database. She moved to New York in 2000 and finished her MFA at Hunter College in 2007. Sandra’s work has been exhibited since 1999 in museums and institutions in Colombia, New York, and Japan. She received the Nathalie Angles Award in 2007, the Sommerville Arts Prize in 2008, and was nominated for the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters and Sculptors Grant in 2009.