Sophia Garcia (b. 1997, Los Angeles, CA), also known as Espina del Valle, is a multidisciplinary artist from the San Fernando Valley.
Deeply influenced by their upbringing in the Valley, Sophia aims to document and preserve the sensations of the radical, multicultural worlds they know through various mediums including documentary and portrait film photography, video & illustration.
They graduated from the Los Angeles County High School for the Arts in 2015, with focuses in Visual Arts and Dance, and Eugene Lang The New School in 2018 where they majored in Arts in Context with a minor in Journalism + Design. While in college they began to organize for immigrant and tenant rights, arts accessiblity, prison abolition, and institutional accountability between New York City and Los Angeles.
A few of the collectives and organizations they have been a part of include Sin Fronteras NYC, Art Space Sanctuary, the MoMA Divest coalition, EastsideLEADS, & Self Help Graphics’ Barrio Mobile Art Studio.
In the summer of 2022, the LA LGBT Center hosted their solo show, Mi Pueblo de Los Angeles, featuring people and places that remind them of home. In 2023, their photographs were featured in Grand Park as part of the Illuminate LA: Collective Memory installation.
Sophia is currently a freelance artist in Los Angeles.