By Cameron Lee
September 28, 2025
Photo: Alana McCallion / Charlotte FC
Dominican multimedia artist Emily Núñez, who was honored by Charlotte FC during its Por La Cultura (For the Culture) Night celebrating Hispanic Heritage Month, grew up on Charlotte’s west side. While in high school, she was first introduced to the arts through Studio 345, a free after-school youth development program founded in 2012 by the Arts & Science Council (now part of Arts+), which offers digital arts, photography, and design classes to students across Mecklenburg County.
Growing up, Núñez rarely saw Latin American artists represented in the Charlotte community, but she drew inspiration from her roots — especially her grandmother.
“She created work just to sell, mostly paintings, and we would paint together a lot when I was younger and visiting her,” Núñez said. “Now she enjoys making jewelry… she was the only artist I knew directly growing up, but all my family is interested in artsy things.”
While in high school at Studio 345, Núñez explored mixed media, screen printing, photography, music production, and even performance art. But it wasn’t until she connected with her teachers that she realized art could be a serious path of study in college and a professional career.
Her work, like Dominican culture itself, is vibrant, festive, and familial — reflecting a heritage rooted in African, European, and Indigenous Taíno lineage. That cultural diversity led her to explore the subject of colorism through her art at Studio 345 in 2018.
“Dominican culture, a lot of times, talks about skin color — wanting to be lighter versus darker, having a certain hair texture. I saw those experiences growing up within my own culture,” Núñez explained. “It’s not racism, one race versus another — it’s within your own race, a ranking system, even though we all come from the same place.”
She translated that complexity into a project combining group dialogue with artwork by high school students, which was later displayed at the Levine Museum of the New South. Núñez believes this is the power of art: it communicates both visually and vocally.
“When you create work about a certain topic, it definitely creates conversation. It might lead people to think differently than they had before. It’s just a way to bring something up.”
Her vivid style was celebrated by Charlotte FC incorporating her designs into the numbers on the back of their heritage kits. The hexagon patterns are filled with nods to not just the Dominican Republic but to Latin America more broadly: exotic animals, flowers, instruments, and ancient monuments.
“Latino and Hispanic culture is very diverse and wide-ranging, but I wanted to bring in elements like music, birds, flowers, and a few landmarks,” she said.
After graduating from Appalachian State University in 2020 with a Bachelor of Fine Arts, Núñez returned to Charlotte and to Studio 345 — this time as a teaching artist in mixed media and screen printing. She also noticed how much the city’s Hispanic community had grown and diversified.
“A lot of Dominicans and more Hispanics are moving into Charlotte from places like New York, New Jersey, Miami… all bringing different cultural backgrounds,” she said.
In 2021, she began a residency at the McColl Center through a grant from Charlotte is Creative, and participated in a program called Project Protégé, where five emerging artists were mentored by Charlotte creatives and leaders in the arts community, including Janelle Dunlap, Bree Stallings, Marcus Kiser, Mike Wirth, and Hannah Hasan. For her project, Núñez again drew on her heritage.
“I created a Dominican backyard. It told the story of how Dominicans bring their home wherever they go.”
The installation showcased both her roots and her multimedia skills, combining three-dimensional pieces, paintings, and paper mâché trees adorned with leaves that held facts about her homeland. In 2024, she created Echoes of Thought: Constructing Spaces for Reflection for the Charlotte International Arts Festival, an 8’ x 10’ installation built with PVC pipes and clear vinyl, featuring portraits of people from different backgrounds and ages to encourage self-reflection.
During her McColl residency, Núñez experimented with new techniques like laser cutting, connected with artists and community leaders, and painted several murals across Charlotte. Her most notable includes a Picasso-inspired mural at Queens University, created for Picasso Landscapes: Out of Bounds, a collaboration between the Mint Museum and Talking Walls.
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Through it all, Núñez returns to the core of her passion: her heritage and creating art por la cultura.
“I love being Hispanic and Latina, and I want to share that with the whole world.”
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