Paola Estrella is a multimedia artist born in Mexico City and based in London. Speculative fiction and self-discovery are central to her practice, through which she conveys notions of intimacy, desire, and becoming. Estrella explores how new technologies impact the public and the private spheres, she reflects on how the imaginary influences social conventions, gender, identity, and our notion of reality. Her work shifts across mixed media, video, installation, and performance as she dives into the blurred limits between the external and the internal world.
Biography
Paola Estrella has a master’s degree from the Royal College of Art in Contemporary Art. She studied art direction and mixed media at Central Saint Martins and she has a BA in Graphic Design. Her work was selected for New Contemporaries 2022, she was shortlisted for the Hari Art Prize and the Lumen Prize, and she was awarded the CSR Travers Smith Art Award.
Estrella’s work has been exhibited internationally in South London Gallery, Saatchi Gallery, White Cube Gallery, Matts Gallery, the Franz Mayer Museum, the Museum of Mexico City, Out Sight Gallery in Seoul, and at Zhou Brothers Art Gallery in Chicago, among others.
CV
b. 1988, Mexico City, Mexico
Education
2018-2021, MA Contemporary Art, Royal College of Art, London
2007-2012, BA Graphic Design, IBERO University, Mexico
Recent Exhibitions
2023 / 2024 ‘Diasporas Now Performance Tour’, Humber Street Gallery in Hull, NN Contemporary Art in Northampton, and ICA in London.
2023 ‘La Loca’, South London Gallery, London
2022 ‘Behavioural Garments’, Goldsmiths Centre for Contemporary Art, London
2022 ‘New Contemporaries’, Humber Street Gallery, Ferens Art Gallery, and South London Gallery, UK
2022 ‘Enigma of Arrival’, Gallery V and Cambridge University, Cambridge
2021 ‘Journeys: The Healing Arts’, Commissioned by CW+ Charity, Saatchi Gallery, London
2021 ‘Lumen Art Biennial, 4th Edition’, The Museum of Mexico City, Mexico
2021 ‘Weaving Worlds’, Somers Gallery, London
2021 ‘Diasporas Now, Performance as Radical Acts of Representation’, Cromwell Place, London
2021 ‘Everything Forever’, Mattflix, Matts Gallery, London
2020 ‘Tomorrow:London’, White Cube Gallery, London
2020 ‘Love Bug’, Outsight Gallery, Seoul
2020 ‘Imminent Vibrational Logic’, South Kiosk Art Space, London
2019 ‘Aglomeraciones’, Seminary of Culture, Mexico City
2019 ‘How Are You Babe’, Blank100, London
2018 ‘Anormal Festival’, Postpornography and Feminisms, Mexico City
2017 ‘Woman as Warrior’, Zhou B Art Center, Chicago
2017 ‘Four Last Things”, Foro Shakespeare, Solo Show, Mexico City
2016 ‘Guanajuato’s National Art Collection’, San Miguel de Allende, Mexico
Awards and Residencies
2022 Shortlisted for Hari Art Prize
2022 Longlisted for LUMEN Prize
2022 New Contemporaries, London
2022 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
2020 Shortlisted for Camaradas Contest by British Council and Mexican Embassy, London
2019 Scholarship, Continuation fund, Villiers David Foundation, and Royal College of Art
2017 Artist in residency, Halka Art Project, Istanbul
2015 Artist in residency, Liquid Rooms, Ca´Zanardi, Venice
Additional Education
2011 Diploma in Mixed Media and Painting, Central Saint Martins, London
2011 Diploma in Web Design and Editing, Central Saint Martins, London
2011 Diploma in Art Direction, Central Saint Martins, London
Teaching and Lecturing
2022 Lecturer BA Photography, London South Bank University
2022 Digital Arts Workshop Leader, Holborn Community Centre, London
2020 Visiting Tutor at the University of Northampton
2020 Visiting Tutor at CASS School of Art, London Metropolitan