Karlito Miller Espinosa (also known for his street art as ‘Mata Ruda’) is a Latinx artist who lives and
works in the Southern Arizona U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. He was born in Costa Rica to an American-
Colombian mother and a Costa Rican father. He lived in Venezuela until he was 11 years old when he
migrated with his family to the United States. He creates paintings, public murals, objects and
installations informed by the direct relationship between our current social conditions and the
structuring roles violence, history, class and cultural division play in their preservation. His studio
practice pays particular attention to the transformations motivated by the inherent contradictions
embedded within the social structures of society.
Karlito participated in the 2019-2020 Whitney Independent Study Program through the Whitney
Museum of American Art in New York, NY. He received his MFA from The University of Arizona in
2019 and his BFA from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) in 2012. From 2011-2014 he
served as a studio assistant and apprentice to New York based artists and MacArthur fellows, Fred
Wilson and Whitfield Lovell. Since then, he has painted murals and has shown paintings in over a
dozen different countries internationally and his work can also be found in the permanent collections
of various museums and prestigious institutions throughout the United States. Over the past four years
he has been a consistent adjunct professor for the Painting, Drawing, and Illustration Departments of
the University of Arizona’s College of Fine Arts in Tucson, Arizona.