Paloma Vianey Martinez

Vianey Martinez Acosta is an interdisciplinary artist from Ciudad Juárez, Mexico who currently lives and works in Washington D.C. Her work explores the vulnerabilities and violence of her community and narrates her experience crossing the U.S.-Mexico border daily, questioning the political corruptness of this division. As an aftermath of the violence peak in Ciudad Juárez, Vianey began painting during her teenagerhood. As the city flooded with violence and corruption, innocent residents confined at home for protection and painting became an indoor, cathartic activity that gave her a sense of freedom. Since then, Vianey have been using Painting as a visual language for social justice. Through historical, photographical, and anecdotal references, in her work, she creates images that provide both care and reflection to Ciudad Juárez.

She earned a BA in Art History from The University of Texas at El Paso and an MFA from Cornell University. She has been a recipient of three Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grants (2023, 2021, and 2020), a grant from the National Fund of the Arts in Mexico (2020), a scholarship the Institute of Mexicans in the Exterior, and the John Hartell Graduate Award at Cornell University.

Paloma was a scholarship recipient at The Antonio Gala Foundation in Cordova, Spain, and a Mellon Collaborative Studies Fellow. She has a public art installation of 22 ft x 70 ft in an international bridge of the U.S.-Mexico border, Americas-Cordova International Bridge. She has exhibited her work at the Herbert F. Johnson Museum, the Antonio Gala Foundation, Amos Eno Gallery, Jack Hanley Gallery, the Mexican Consulate at El Paso Texas, El Paso Museum of Art, The Stanlee and Gerald Rubin Center for the Visual Arts, and the Archeology and History Museum of El Chamizal. In 2016, she was an intern at The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.

Degrees:

• MFA, Cornell University, NY
• BA Art History, The University of Texas at El Paso, TX

Specialist Areas:

• Painting
• Drawing