Rocio Maldonado

Rocío Maldonado (born 1951) is a Mexican artist who was born in Tepic, Nayarit.

Maldonado rose to prominence in the art world during the 1980s Neo-Mexicanism movement. Her works, often compared to Frida Kahlo and Maria Izquierdo, depict feminist concerns and challenge cultural ideals of womanhood. Maldonado's artistic style has evolved over time, with her primary focus being the female body, addressing social, political, and cultural issues. She incorporates some mixed media elements in her large-scale paintings. Maldonado studied art at the Escuela Nacional de Pintura, Escultura, y Grabado (ENPEG) in the late 1970s and has traveled extensively. Some of her notable artworks include Soldadito de Plomo, Las Dos Hermanas, and Éctasis de Santa Teresa.

Biography Rocío Maldonado established her career and rose into the art world in the 1980s during the Neo-Mexicanism movement. Maldonado’s works have been exhibited all over the world in California, Spain, Mexico, Australia, and New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York is the permanent home to some of her works.

Maldonado’s artistic style changed throughout the years; she began painting desert landscapes with vibrant colors some of her early work is similar to Neo-Expressionist artworks with the addition of Mexican cultural subject matter. Ultimately, the themes addressed in her artworks fit into the 1980s neomexicanismo tendency where an emerging generation of figurative painters challenged fixed notions of identity in their artwork. or at least as gynocentric; she uses the female body to make social and political commentary as well to address questions within her own culture. Her reoccurring use of the female body also shows her personal concerns with how society views women and how society treats women. The palette she commonly uses other than black and white are ochre, to resemble earth, and red, to resemble blood, the two colors together in her work are symbolic of “corporeality and spirituality.” She discovered her interest in art at the early age of ten. Her father was not a big supporter of her love for art or her aspirations to pursue art as a career, but her mother was. she plays with the idea of women being dominated by both sacred and profane love and with the eroticism led by the male gaze.

Exhibitions +Selected group exhibitions YearExhibition Title/ Location1983Salón Anual de Pintura, Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, México, D.F. 1984 Primer Certamen del "Paisaje Veracruzano," Jalapa, Veracruz, MéxicoII Bienal de Pintura Rufino Tamayo, Oaxaca, Oax., MéxicoI Bienal de Dibujo Diego Rivera, Guanajuato, Gto., México1985 "17 Artistas de Hoy en México," Museo Rufino Tamayo, México, D.F. "Espacio Violento", Museo de Arte Moderno de la ciudad de México"Tres Mujeres", Galería OMR, México, D.F.1986V Bienal Iberoamericana de Arte. Instituto Cultural Domecq, México, D.F."Raíces Populares del Arte Mexicano Actual", Galería OMR, México, D.F."Trois Fruits Feminis de la Peinture Mexicane," Centre Culurel du Mexique, Paris, France. 1987"Art of the fantastic. Latin America 1920–1987" Indianapolis Museum of Art, Indianapolis, Indiana, U.S. "Challenge. Contemporary drawings from Latin America", CDS Gallery, New York, NY, U.S.“Imágenes Guadalupanas", Centro Cultural/ Arte Contemporáneo. Fundación Cultural Televisa, México, D.F."El mueble, 8 artistas", Galería OMR, México, D.F"Pintoras mexicanas de los siglos XVIII, XIX y XX", Galería Libertad, Querétaro, México.1988"Rooted Visions: Mexican Art Today", Museum of Contemporary Hispanic Art, (MoCHA) New York, NY, U.S1989"Contemporary Mexican Artists", Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, Ca.; Boehm Gallery, Palomar College, San Marcos, CA.; Mesa College Art Gallery, San Diego, CA., U.S. "Guadalupe: Epiphanie d'un Métissage", Centre Culturel du Mexique, París, Francia "Virgenes, Dioses y Hechiceros", Comisión de Cultura, Ayuntamiento de Palma de Mallorca, España."Pintura Mexicana de Hoy, Tradición e Innovación", Centro Cultural Alfa, Monterrey, Mexico. 1990“Mexico: Out of the Profane", Adelaide Festival, Contemporary Art Centre, Adelaide, Australia."Through the Path of Echoes", Independent Curators Inc., New York, N.Y., U.S"Aspects of Contemporary Mexican Painting". Americas Society, New York, NY, U.S."Women in Mexico", National Academy of Design, New York, N.Y., U.S."Forces of History Symbols of Desire", Parallel Project, New York, N.Y. U.S.1991"Divergencias, Coincidencias y Persistencias", Museo del Chopo, México, D.F."Mito y Magia en América: Los Ochenta", Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey, N.L., México"The Earth Itself", Parallel Project, Los Angeles, CA, U.S."El Arte de la Suerte", Galería OMR, México, D.F.1992"Entretrópicos", Museo Sofía Imber, Caracas, Venezuela"Cartografía de Una Generación: Quince Años de Creación en Perspectiva", Galería del Estado, Jalapa, Ver., México1992–93"Artistas Latino Americanos del siglo XX", Estación Plaza de Armas, Sevilla, España