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<\/p>\nHilda Palafox, Mural for Urvanity Art 2019, Madrid. Courtesy of the artist.<\/p>\n
One of Hilda Palafox<\/a>\u2019s early murals, painted in 2019 on the side of a residential building above a caf\u00e9 in Madrid\u2019s La Latina neighborhood, depicts two elongated female figures standing back-to-back, their bodies interlocked as they balance a shallow bowl of fruit overhead. The figures\u2019 simplified silhouettes and interaction with a man-made object anticipate a visual language that would come to define her work\u2014one rooted in balance, attentiveness, and feminine interdependence.<\/p>\n Living and working in Mexico City, Palafox has been shaped by the city\u2019s modernist architecture and monumental public art. \u201cIn Mexico, muralism has a deep history,\u201d Palafox said in an interview with Artsy. \u201cThe Mexican muralism<\/a> movement was about education for everyone, about beauty in daily life.\u201d <\/p>\n Portrait of Hilda Palafox by Angela Simi. Courtesy of the artist.<\/p>\n Now, Palafox\u2019s practice, with its muralist inspirations, has gained increasing international visibility. She has exhibited widely across Mexico and the United States as well as further afield, and is represented by Proyectos Monclova<\/a>. When we spoke, the artist was preparing for a New York solo exhibition, \u201cDe Tierra y Susurros (Of Soil and Whispers)<\/a>,\u201d which opened January 9th at Sean Kelly Gallery<\/a>. \u201cI\u2019m nervous\u2014in a good way,\u201d she admitted with a smile. The exhibition brings together a new body of paintings and works on paper with \u201cPortales,\u201d a series of stone reliefs carved from cantera\u2014a lightweight volcanic stone long used in Mexican architecture. Together, these works shift the site of monumentality from scale to sensation. \u201cMy work is always an invitation to look inside,\u201d she said. \u201cTo be more gentle with what\u2019s going on outside.\u201d<\/p>\n Emerging in the early 20th century, Mexican muralism sought to make art accessible beyond institutional spaces, using public walls to address history, social struggle, and collective memory. Palafox cites figures such as Jos\u00e9 Vasconcelos, Jorge Gonz\u00e1lez Camarena<\/a>, Juan O\u2019Gorman<\/a>, and, in particular, Carlos M\u00e9rida<\/a>, whose abstraction of the human figure into simple, modular forms expanded muralism beyond narrative realism toward symbolic geometry.<\/p>\n Palafox has been drawing for as long as she can remember. But it wasn\u2019t until 2016, when she began painting murals, that her practice fully opened up. \u201cI always loved making things with my hands,\u201d she said, reflecting on her childhood growing up in Mexico City. \u201cIn high school, I had many friends who were into art, but I didn\u2019t know what it meant to be a painter. I didn\u2019t have that contemporary view yet.\u201d<\/p>\n She went on to study design at the Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (INBA), drawn to its tactile, hands-on approach, where graphic, industrial, and textile design were all taught together. After graduating, Palafox worked briefly in advertising before turning to illustration, a shift that brought her closer to storytelling and image-making. <\/p>\n For Palafox, mural painting offered something illustration could not: physicality, scale, and a direct relationship with public space. \u201cMy illustration work was more alone in the studio,\u201d she said. \u201cWhen you work on murals, you\u2019re outside, among people, using your whole body.\u201d <\/p>\n Meanwhile in the studio, Palafox gravitated toward larger canvases, translating the physicality of mural-making into painting. What began as a graphic style gradually became more fluid and layered. The transition from acrylics to oil opened, as she put it, \u201ca whole new universe.\u201d Color deepened to earthen tones and subtle contrasts, edges softened, and surfaces gained texture and density. \u201cWhen you hear \u2018nature,\u2019 most people think of green,\u201d she noted, \u201cbut I wanted to work with soil and earthy tones. There\u2019s heat in everything now.\u201d<\/p>\n Her current studio, a small apartment she rents from her sister in Mexico City\u2019s Narvarte neighborhood, is just a short walk from her home. A jacaranda tree blooms outside the window, bringing a sense of serenity into the space. \u201cAt some point, I would love to have a big space for more explosive creation,\u201d Palafox admitted. \u201cFor now, it works.\u201d<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/01\/1768427230_984_d7hftxdivxxvm.cloudfront.net.jpeg\")
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