Yulissa Cortinas is a Mexican American painter based in Brooklyn, New York. A self taught artist, she developed her practice through self directed experimentation, working primarily in oil on canvas and primed wood panels. Her paintings are driven by gesture and movement, using expressive mark making to explore the body as a vessel for memory, tension, and emotional transformation.
Raised in Texas after immigrating to the United States with her family, Cortinas’ life has been shaped by constant movement and adaptation. These experiences inform the emotional landscape of her work, where figures often appear suspended between hesitation and action. Through layered brushwork and a restrained palette, she captures fleeting psychological states, moments when fear, vulnerability, and courage converge.
Her intuitive approach to painting prioritizes sensation and presence over strict realism. Gesture, light, and texture become the primary language through which the body expresses internal states that are often difficult to articulate. Cortinas allows forms to emerge organically through the movement of paint, creating compositions that balance fragility with physical intensity.
Cortinas’ work has been featured in curated exhibitions supporting emerging artists, including Conception Arts, where she received the Award of Excellence. Across both intimate panels and larger works, her practice continues to investigate how the body holds emotional memory and how movement can reveal the tension between uncertainty and resilience.
Currently Exhibiting in: Brooklyn, NY
Web: yulissacortinas.com
Instagram: @yulissacortinas
Featured Artwork at Bushwick Gallery
Title: Leap Series
Year of Creation: 2024
Medium: Oil on wood panel
Dimensions: 6 × 6 in each
Edition Type: Unique, 1 of 1 works
Location: Brooklyn, NY
Price: $1,200 for the set of four works
Works Included in the Series
Fear of Falling
Dive All In
Spiral
Leap
ADD TO YOUR COLLECTION- COMING SOON
Description
The Leap series captures the body suspended between hesitation and motion. Each small panel isolates a fleeting moment when the body is caught between fear and action, revealing the emotional tension that exists just before movement fully commits.
Working in oil on primed wooden panels, Cortinas uses a restrained palette of black and white to emphasize gesture, tone, and physical presence rather than precise anatomy. Loose brushwork and layered textures allow the figures to emerge through movement, carrying traces of vulnerability, uncertainty, and resilience.
The series draws from Cortinas’ own experiences navigating unfamiliar environments after immigrating with her family and repeatedly starting over in new places. Moving to New York intensified this sense of instability and independence, shaping a body of work that confronts fear rather than avoiding it.
These paintings explore the fragile threshold between hesitation and courage. The figures twist, dive, and spiral through space, embodying the psychological moment when a person decides to move forward despite uncertainty.
Through the Leap series, Cortinas reflects on the emotional forces that shape the body before the mind fully understands them. The works invite viewers to inhabit those charged, fleeting moments where vulnerability and determination coexist.
Exhibition Information
Exhibition Title: Soft Shadows
Theme: Where light meets quiet transformation. This exhibition explores the subtle tension between illumination and restraint, examining moments where growth and clarity unfold without spectacle.
Media: Painting, sculpture, photography, installation
Exhibition Dates: March 19 to March 26, 2026
Opening Reception: Thursday, March 19, 6 PM to 8 PM