Paloma Ayala – Mexico/Switzerland – Wall Painting
Paloma Ayala, native of Mexico, studied her BFA at the University of Monterrey Mexico, (2002, UdeM). She lived in Rochester NY (USA) from 2005-10, teaching and developing her artwork. Paloma is currently living in Switzerland, where she actively works with European artists on different projects, and continues to pursue her interest in instructing Visual Arts to children along with communities in need.
She has participated in exhibitions in the U.S. (Buffalo and Rochester), Canada (Quebec), Switzerland (Zurich and Baden), Slovenia, and Mexico (Mexico).
Paloma is also the founder and organizer of ExpoTranskultur, a project that focuses on reflecting and dialoguing about migratory issues through Art and other perspectives.
Her artwork is intended to awake a personal sense of self-consciousness through the continuous study of the human body, which is essential inspiration and appears in almost all series. The images address issues of identity, gender and moral, the physicality of the body combined with myths and stories, and human-beast transformations. Recent works deal with adaptation, translation, and transformation issues.
The Dragon’s Bride
(Acrylic on wall)
“The Dragon’s Bride” tale is part of Bulgarian folklore and describes the love between the mythical figure of the dragon and a young woman. Their secret affair is one of forceful passion, leading to her alienation from the community, and a life transfigured, as she eventually begins taking features from her magical husband.
Paloma Ayala (Mex) depicts this story in painting as an embrace of two figures: a paternalistic half-snake, half-human dragon, and a clawed girl. The constellations of Draco, Cygnus and Lupus are used, not only as a reference to the Star Rituals theme of the Old School Residency program, but connecting to Gorna Lipnitsa’s local folklore, as it is said that a dragon was once here and is expected to come back.
Watch out for your daughters.
The Dragon’s Bride
The Dragon’s Bride
The Dragon’s Bride
The Dragon’s Bride
