Ruth Leonela Buentello

Ruth Leonela Buentello (born 1984) is an American Chicana visual artist.

In 2019, she was named as a participant in the Joan Mitchell Foundation residency program.

Early life and education In 1984, Buentello was born in San Antonio, Texas.

She attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, and graduated with a Bachelors of Fine Arts in 2008. In 2021, Buentello graduated with a Master in Fine Art degree in painting from the Maine College of Art & Design in Portland.

Her work has focused on immigration, undocumented immigrants, patriarchy, machismo, labor, Chicana/o studies, and chicana art. In 2009, she had co-founded the Más Rudas Chicana Artist Collective (Más Rudas) with Sarah Castillo, Kristin Gamez, and Mari Hernandez.

In 2010, she studied abroad in France and Italy after receiving an Artist Travel Grant from Artpace to study the art of Nikki de Saint Phalle. In 2003, she created Piedad (Piety), a street mural focusing on police brutality in San Antonio as well.

She participated in the Mexic-Arte Museum's exhibit Young Latino Artists 16: Thought Cloud in 2011.

In 2018, the work of Buentello alongside the work of Kathy Vargas and 3 other artists was exhibited in the University of Texas at San Antonio's "Deep Roots: An Intersection of Borders" exhibit.

In 2019, she was the third Efroymson Emerging Artist in Residence at the University of Michigan. She was also featured at Presa House Gallery's 2019 Remember Me exhibit.