Lot 237 - Paola Estrella - Santa Barbara Cenote

Acrylic on paper
2024
A6 (10x15cm)
Original Artwork
Signed on Verso
Curated by Art on a Postcard

About
Paola Estrella is a multimedia artist from Mexico based in London. Her work shifts across painting, video, installation, and performance, with speculative fiction serving as a core element of her practice. Through this lens, she conveys themes of intimacy, desire, and becoming. Estrella delves into the impact of new technologies on public and private spheres, examining how the imaginary shapes social conventions, identity, and our notion of reality. Her interest lies in the intricate tensions and complexities of belief systems and worldviews, as well as the intersection of imagination and perception in relation to transcendent experiences.

Education
2018-2021
MA Contemporary Art, Royal College of Art, London

2007-2012
BA Graphic Design, IBERO University, Mexico

Solo Exhibitions
N/A

Group Exhibitions
2025
London Art Fair, Metamorphica Gallery, London

2024
In Between, V&A Latinx Takeover, UCL East, Performing The Cenote Ring, London
Fire, Display Fever and Metamorphika Studio, London
Speculative Land(e)scapes, Silian Gallery, London

2023
Diasporas Now Performance Tour, Humber Street Gallery in Hull, NN Contemporary Art in Northampton, and ICA in London
La Loca, South London Gallery, London

2022
Behavioural Garments, Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, London
New Contemporaries, Humber Street Gallery, Ferens Art Gallery, and South London Gallery, UK
Enigma of Arrival, Gallery V and Cambridge University, Cambridge

2021
Journeys: The Healing Arts, Commissioned by CW+ Charity, Saatchi Gallery, London
Lumen Art Biennial, 4th Edition, The Museum of Mexico City, Mexico

2020
Tomorrow: London, White Cube Gallery, London
Love Bug, Outsight Gallery, Seoul

2019
Aglomeraciones, Seminary of Culture, Mexico City
How Are You Babe, Blank100, London

Awards
2024
Arte Lagos Residency, Mexico City

2022
Shortlisted for Hari Art Prize
Longlisted for LUMEN Prize
New Contemporaries, London
Award winner of the Travers Smith CSR Art Programme, London

2021
Arte Lumen Art Biennial, 4th edition, finalist, Mexico

2020
Contigo A Distancia, Art Bursary, FONCA, Mexico

Statement about AOAP Submitted Artwork
These series of postcards are inspired by the underground bodies of water forming the cenote ring in Yucatan, Mexico. These are part of a multimedia project that addresses the complexities and tensions of belief systems and worldviews by connecting the historical significance of this geological feature, created by an asteroid impact, with contemporary societal issues such as consumerism, expansion, speed, and resource accumulation amid an ecological crisis.