Jaana Baker (a.k.a. Jaja Vidal) is an artist based in Los Angeles county. For the last few years, she has been exploring an intersection of her identity as a Filipino-American woman through several disciplines: painting, photography, installation, and textile design. Her work incorporates vibrant colors, patterns, and light, combining themes of tradition with contemporary materials like iridescent plastic. The end results deliver difficult topics through a more palatable, neon aesthetic that presents trauma wrapped in a little bit of whimsy.

She received her Bachelor of Fine Arts from California State University Fullerton. In 2021, she was selected for a solo show at the Brea Gallery, where she exhibited “Poppies and Sampaguitas,” a show that touched on the challenges of dueling identities, questioning tradition and gender roles often imposed in Filipino culture. In 2023, she received a grant and solo show opportunity from the Goethe-Institut Los Angeles that resulted in “Tahanan: Home Is Where Your Paról Is,” in which she constructed a large-scale installation that celebrated Filipino identity in the diaspora and facilitated several community events during the exhibition. In addition to solo shows, she has shown her work in group exhibitions in Chicago, LA, and Glasgow, Scotland. She continues her work on Filipino-American identity, not only as a way to process her own experiences, but also as a meaningful way to connect with her community.

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