Lucía Vidales

Lucía Vidaleswas, born in Mexico City, Mexico in 1986, now lives and works in Monterrey, Mexico.

Her work is concerned, above all, with painting. The body is recurrent as figure, as the painted gaze, and as the painting itself. Fragmented limbs often seem to emerge from, or sink into, the luminous or shadowy depths of her painterly surfaces. For Vidales, painting can transform time, our relationship with matter, and how we experience our own bodies. She is interested in a liminal and polyvalent use of colour, and a fluid relationship with drawing — as evidenced by the layered remains of decision after decision, which are by turns sedimented in the work’s material surface, or invisibly erased, or still pending. Vidales’ work is informed by the consequences of historical and colonial imaginaries as they continue to impact actual bodies and the body of painting itself. The beings that populate her paintings suggest the potential for confrontation, but seldom follow through. Instead, they play with humour or anxiety, or seek consolation from ancient wounds.

Lucía has exhibited her work nationally and internationally. Some of her recent solo exhibitions include: “El fuego que no produce” (2023–2024), Museo Cabañas, curated by Víctor Palacios (Guadalajara, MX); “Hambre – Atrium Project” (2024), Kemper Museum (Kansas, US); “Un lugar para sí misma” (2021), Galería Karen Huber (CDMX, MX); “Sudor frío” (2021), Proxyco Gallery (New York, US); “To cool the blue” (2020), Taka Ishii Film & Photography (Tokyo, JP); and “Come as you are” (2020), House of Deslave (Tijuana, MX). In 2024 she presented the installation “La piel de la noche” as part of the FEMSA Biennial Commissions programme. Recent group exhibitions include: “Perhaps the truth” (2023–2024), Ballroom Marfa (Texas, US); “Glóbulo” (2023), Centro Cultural Los Pinos (CDMX, MX); and “Doing Time” (2023), South Parade Gallery (London, UK).

Vidales earned an MFA at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, Faculty of Art and Design (FAD, UNAM), and a BFA in 2009 from La Esmeralda National School of Painting, Sculpture and Printmaking of the National Institute of Fine Arts, Mexico City. She is currently an Art Professor at the University of Monterrey (UDEM) and has been awarded the Jóvenes Creadores grant by the Secretaría de Cultura, Mexico, three times, as well as several national recognitions including the Premio Nacional de Arte Joven (2013) and first prize Arte Lumen (2015).