Paula R Rodriguez (1989, Mexico City) is a Mexican artist based in London whose painting practice combines creative explorations of her native Mexico with social concerns. She weaves narratives that explore the subject matter of mental health, often specifically as it relates to her cultural background.

Rodriguez’s paintings capture the beauty and magic of Mexico and Latin America while exploring issues of identity. Seeking to portray fragments of the essence of communities and places, Rodriguez is fascinated by the way spaces acquire an identity of their own through the passage of time, and through the meaning given to them by the people who inhabit and animate them. She uses shape, colour, and form to evoke the magic realism of her cultural background and the richness of its native traditions.

Being Latin American is integral to Rodriguez's identity and is a key part of her work; intersections between memory and place as sites of personal and collective belonging are central subjects. She is especially interested in the magical realism it evokes and aims to portray this whilst transporting people to imaginary places rooted in her own recollections, often evoking a pleasant feeling of solitude.

The poetic realism of Rodriguez’s work conveyed through striking colour combinations, and hard-edge abstractions, and her images which are populated by lone figures, transport us to an imaginary world of understated beauty and stillness.

Solo Shows:

• 2022 - Bienvenidos al Mictlan (Welcomoe to Mictlan), Mexican Embassy in London
• 2021 - Spaces Within, Oxo Tower London
• 2021 - Memorias de mi Tierra (Memories of my Land), Falling Piano Brewery, Mexico City
• 2019 - El Colima de Gregorio Torres Quintero, Historical Archive of the Municipality of Colima

Group Shows:

• 2023 - Dreamscapes, Deptford Open 205
• 2022 - May we know them, Lewisham Arthouse London
• 2022 - Adidas International Women's day, 425 Oxford Street
• 2022 - Space Jam, 14 Bedford Square, London
• 2021 - Dear Brockley, Lewisham Arthouse London
• 2017 - Sounds of the City, The London Transport Museum

Publications:

• 2021 - Inverosimil Magazine
• 2021 - Winsor and Newton “Featured Artist”
• 2018 - La Vaquera, Universidad de Colima
• 2018 - Juanjo Pregunton, Puerta Abierta Editoriales

Recognitions:

• 2021 - Selected as the Artist in residence for Cluster London, Cluster Illustration Residency Program

Education:

• 2017 - MA Illustration from University of the Arts London, Camberwell College of Arts
• 2012 - Bsc Molecular Biology from The University of Exeter