About

Photo: Alessandro Ceccarelli

Artist-Curator-Lecturer

I was born and raised in Mexico before living in the United States, France, Germany, and now the United Kingdom. I studied MA Painting at the Royal College of Art in 2008 and completed a Post‑Graduate Diploma in Fine Art at Goldsmiths, University of London, in 2000. Although painting is at the core of my practice, I approach the medium expansively, often incorporating sculpture, installation, textiles, and photography in ways that fold back into my painterly language.

My work is rooted in symbolism and narrative, exploring identity, femininity, hybridity, and transformation. I am particularly drawn to the female figure as a site of multiplicity—fluid, paradoxical, and in constant metamorphosis. The figures I depict often appear divided, doubled, or hybrid, reflecting the layered and shifting nature of contemporary identity.

Within my painted worlds, tree‑women, monster‑women, and amphibian-like beings inhabit surreal, lush, and sometimes uncanny landscapes. These characters merge with organic forms, embodying interconnectedness and continual becoming. Their bodies often “weep” pigment—limbs and hair dripping with colour and texture—blurring the boundary between figure and medium, subject and surface.

Themes of cultural hybridity, lineage, and family also run through my work. My own nomadic life informs a sense of displacement and kinship across borders, while intergenerational connections appear through symbolic and decorative motifs. Trompe‑l’œil and mise‑en‑abyme strategies allow me to play with illusion and materiality, questioning the truthfulness of representation. Assemblage and process‑driven transformation disrupt traditional portraiture and narrative forms. I frequently draw from applied and decorative arts—delftware tiles, ornamental patterns, textile-like surfaces—which become carriers of intertwined stories and cultural references. In recent years, historical collections and archives have increasingly shaped my research and imagery.

I have presented solo exhibitions in the UK, France, Germany, Mexico, and Argentina. Museum exhibitions include the Museo Leonora Carrington in San Luis Potosí, Mexico (2019), and Kunstmuseum Magdeburg, Germany (2016), the latter accompanied by a bilingual monograph published by Verlag für Moderne Kunst, Vienna. As a multicultural artist, my work was featured in the group exhibition Tous, des sang‑mêlés at MACVAL, Vitry‑sur‑Seine, France (2017). Solo projects include exhibitions at the Maison de l’Amérique latine, Paris (2022), Thames Estuary Festival, Essex UK (2021), Dukan Gallery, Leipzig (2014); the Mexican Cultural Institute, Paris (2013); Pippy Houldsworth Gallery, London (2006); and Ruth Benzacar Gallery, Buenos Aires (2005). A semi‑retrospective of my work was shown at L.A.C. Sigéan in collaboration with FRAC Occitanie (2010). I have also participated in international painting surveys such as Heute. Spektrum. Malerei. at Kunstmuseum Magdeburg (2012) and Slow Magic: Contemporary Approaches to Painting at the Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool (2009). Over several years I have participated in numerous prestigious residency programmes, among them the Delfina Studio Trust and also Gasworks in London, as well as Skowhegan in the USA.

My work is held in public and private collections internationally and has been widely reviewed and featured in publications including Art News, Art Press, Modern Painters, Artforum, Turps Banana, The Guardian, Le Monde, Libération, Beaux‑Arts Magazine, The New York Times, and Reforma, among others.

In 2017, I unveiled a public sculpture commission at Kunstmuseum Magdeburg titled Insel der Puppen (Island of Dolls), created in steel and enamel.

I have been Associate Lecturer in Fine Art at University of the Arts, London since 2015. I have curated and co-curated institutional shows in both France and the UK, and in various commercial galleries in both Paris and London (La Friche de la Belle de Mai, Marseilles, Somers Gallery, London, among other venues.)

All images on website copyright Alicia Paz (except otherwise noted)