Next Big Thing: Hilda Palafox
For an upcoming exhibition at Sean Kelly gallery, the artist is developing a new body of work that "engages in dialogue with eco-feminist theories"
Viewed through Hilda Palafox’s creative lens, the female form is charged with symbolic force. Known for her distinctive, large-scale paintings of outsize women bearing a commanding presence, the Mexico City artist draws influence from both Mexican modernism (including its renowned practitioners like Juan O’Gorman and Diego Rivera) and female artists who explore the body, identity, and territory, such as Ana Mendieta and Marina Abramović. “I like to think that my practice articulates a dialogue between the monumental legacy of muralism and Mexican modernism as well as the political and poetic potency of contemporary feminist practices,” she says.
Unique process: Palafox’s training in graphic design defines her pictorial style of strong lines and carefully balanced compositions. “Within this economy of visual resources, I find expressive power,” she states. “Line functions as both structure and trace, color as breath and accent, and composition as a field of forces where balance coexists with instability.”
New direction: For an exhibition at Sean Kelly gallery in New York in early 2026, she is developing a new body of work that “engages in dialogue with eco-feminist theories, seeking to explore the ways in which the feminine and the natural intersect as living forces.”
“What I see in Hilda’s work is a matriarchal world where women are free to wander through the inner landscapes of their psyches—and where their strength grows in togetherness,”says Zélika García, founder of Zona Maco.
A version of this article first appeared in print in our 2025 Winter issue under the headline “Next Big Things.” Subscribe to the magazine.