Natalya Critchley was born in England but moved to the south of  Venezuela at a young age, where she worked in the cultural department of one of the state industries. In her own work, she depicted urban and industrial structures, synthesizing an alphabet of symbols now used extensively to reconstruct the landscape and female figure while pondering ecological imbalances. She has also run social art projects in the Venezuelan shanty towns and the city of Kalamazoo, Michigan. Her exhibition, Mangled Hopes for Bridges, expresses her pain and solidarity for the Venezuelan people as that country experiences one of the most tragic diasporas in current times.