Aldrich Museum In Ridgefield To Showcase Estefania Puerta’s First Solo Exhibition, ‘Laughing Death Drive’

RIDGEFIELD, CT — The Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum in Ridgefield will present the first solo museum exhibition of Estefania Puerta, featuring a new wall relief and a recent sculpture, from Sept. 18, 2025, to Jan. 11, 2026.

Part of the museum’s Aldrich Projects series, "Estefania Puerta: Laughing Death Drive" will debut the artist’s latest work, “Laughing Death Drive” (2025), alongside “Garganta Cueva” (2023), in the museum’s atrium.

Born in Manizales, Colombia, and raised in East Boston, Puerta’s work blurs the lines between the alien and the natural, the comforting and the threatening, according to The Aldrich. Influenced by literature, mythology and psychoanalysis, she explores themes of shapeshifting, transformation, and the cultural and material translation of identity.

Her sculptures incorporate materials ranging from stained glass and fungi to volcanic rock from Colombia’s Nevado del Ruiz. “Garganta Cueva” features a chartreuse-green case with metallic, breast-like mounds, a curled canine figure, and embedded symbolic objects, serving as a meditation on containment, memory and power.

“Laughing Death Drive,” nearly 10 feet long and five inches high, draws from the intimate scale of reliquaries and devotional tablets. The piece examines language as a felt, rhythmic experience, compressing emotion and symbolism into its form.

Puerta, a recipient of the 2023–24 Philip Guston Rome Prize, has exhibited at institutions including the Berkeley Art Museum, Palazzo delle Esposizioni in Rome, and the New England Triennial at DeCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. She earned her MFA from the Yale School of Art and lives and works between Vermont and New York.

The exhibition is curated by Caitlin Monachino, the museum’s curatorial and publications manager, and will be accompanied by a zine.