Mirka Leyva-Gaucin is a first generation Mexican-American artist based in the midwest. She received a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Art with concentrations in Photography, Graphic Design, and Printmaking from Emporia State University in Emporia, Kansas. She explores subjects relating to mental health, ideologies of romance, and other contemporary vulnerabilities, using text and portraiture through photography, mixed media, and book arts. Mirka has been recognized for her artwork, receiving the Juror’s Choice award in the 2021 Emporia State University Department of Art Juried Student Show and receiving the Art 96 Award, the top scholarship for current ESU art students. Her work was also selected by April M. Watson, senior photography curator at The Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, for the Current Works 2022 Exhibition at the Leedy-Voulkos Art Center in Kansas City, Missouri. Mirka opened her first solo exhibition did you feel it too? in January 2023 at Trox Gallery in Emporia, Kansas.

She currently works in the Fine Arts & Design Studios at Johnson County Community College in Overland Park, Kansas, as a Studio Arts Technician and is the Marketing Specialist for Café Corazón, a Latino and locally owned coffee shop in the Crossroads Arts District of Kansas City, Missouri. Mirka also recently organized a group photography show at the cafe, Sobre Nuestra Latinidad/ About our Latinx Identities, that ran through September 15th - October 31st, 2024.