“Sobre los Hombros” (Over the Shoulders) showcases my rebozo series, a body of work combining painting and installation. As an artist from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico (a city located in the U.S.-Mexico border), all my work reflects my experience growing up in a city filled with violence and corruption. However, my mission is to deviate from stereotypical representations of the border and Ciudad Juárez. Without negating the violence that occurs, I attempt to represent the resilience and culture of this misunderstood city.My practice is experimental, as I often incorporate three-dimensionality, fabric, and Mexican materials to my images. Attempting to challenge traditional ways of painting, I have a curiosity to discover new ways of using paint. In this series, I incorporate the Mexican “rebozo”, a traditional shawl worn by women, and although it is not part of contemporary women’s garments anymore, they are still an emblem of our heritage. These rebozos are mounted on the wall, with the two extremes knotted, forming an ellipse. A painting is placed over the rebozo, which depicts an image of Ciudad Juárez that follows the ellipse shape of the rebozo, making it become part of Ciudad Juárez. Mimicked with oil painting, the outside of the ellipse has the pattern of the rebozo fabric, unifying the rebozo with the image further. These rebozos attempt to provide care to these images of Ciudad Juárez, a place in need of empathy. All images reflect the urban landscape of the city, with a focus on the city’s vegetation. Located in the desert of the state of Chihuahua, the vegetation both endemic and non-native, is a trace of the citizens’ footprint in the city’s landscape. The plants are also witnesses of the city’s events, withstanding harsh climate conditions, just as citizens withstand harsh social conditions.

    Paloma Vianey is an interdisciplinary artist from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico based in Washington DC. She began painting in her teenage years during Ciudad Juarez’s violence peak, and since then has used painting as a visual language for social justice. Her work also narrates her experience crossing the U.S.-Mexico border every day for years, exposing the corruption and evils found in this barrier aggressively dividing the North American landscape. She earned a BA in Art History from UT El Paso and an MFA from Cornell University. She has received grants from the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation (2020, 2021, 2023), the National Fund of the Arts in Mexico (2020), and a fellowship from The Phillips Collection (2023). In 2018 Vianey realized a large-scale public art installation (22 ft x 70 ft) on the Americas-Cordova International Bridge along the U.S.-Mexico border. She has been awarded residences at Fundación Antonio Gala in Spain and The Studios of Key West, Florida. Vianey has exhibited her work at El Paso Museum of Art, Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, the Herbert F. Johnson Museum, the Antonio Gala Foundation, Jack Hanley Gallery, the Mexican Consulate at El Paso Texas, the Archeology and History Museum of El Chamizal in Ciudad Juárez, and others.