about me
BIO
American, born Mexico. Works and lives in Miami, FL.
Villarreal is an interdisciplinary artist working at the intersection of fiber, painting, and photography. Through the use of embroidery, paint, and textile on paper and canvas, Villarreal creates a transdisciplinary language and poetry inspired by the vivid colors and ancient traditions of her Mexican roots. In the late 1990s, she immigrated to the United States, a process that underscored the economic and social disparities between the two countries. Creating tensions among her multimedia works, Villarreal integrates both environmental geographies in her life, questioning issues of identity, sense of place, longing, and memory.
Villarreal holds a MA in Analysis and Management of Contemporary Art from the University of Barcelona, Spain. She studied at the University of North Carolina, the New York School of Visual Arts, and the Art Students League in New York. Select individual exhibitions include the Instituto Cultural de Mexico in Miami, the Embassy of Chile in Washington D.C., the Centro Cultural Fatima in Mexico, and the Mexican Consulate in Los Angeles. She participated in Parc Lima, Chaco Chile, and Pinta Miami. She has curated for the Mexican Cultural Institute in Miami, part of the Consulate dedicated to the promotion of Mexican artists in the US, and currently directs art education programs for young audiences in the city of Key Biscayne, Florida.
STATEMENT
I grew up in a country of pure yellows, pinks, and oranges. Mexico is a vivid place for festivities, unusual costumes, and vibrant objects. It is a country that tries to preserve its homogeneity as a nation while simultaneously fighting to return to a past life, one snatched away from its people. When I moved to the United States, I discovered a place ruled by precision and efficiency, where people have built everything to resemble and reflect their own image.
I believe it is through a series of actions that we form a new self. My experience of living in both countries has created a tension that I bring to my work through an interdisciplinary approach. I embed and suture organic colorful fabric threads onto monochromatic photographs; the techniques of ancient Mayan textile traditions reappear in the new structured forms of geometric shapes and language; I disrupt the architectural space by creating monumental geometric drawings with thread; and create textile paintings inspired by Mexico’s multilayered, deteriorating, and colored walls.
My research is inspired by the archival and embroidery textile traditions of Mexico, its rich ancestral pigments, and the properties of its food and plants. Weaving history through the materiality of the work is reflective of my technical process. Traditions that are memory become tangible as I question issues of identity, sense of place, and belonging. And it is in this search for identity that every time the needle pierces the photograph, the pigment adheres to the fabric, the thread attaches to the paper, and the space is restructured, I remake myself every step of the way.
CV
VISUAL ARTIST
American, b. Monterrey, Mexico
Lives and works in Miami, FL
EDUCATION
2008–2010 | M.A. in Analysis and Management of Art | Universidad de Barcelona, Spain
1989–1993 | B.A. in Marketing | ITESM, Mexico
ADDITIONAL STUDIES
2021 Uncool Artist. International Lab for Art Practices. Brooklyn, NY
2000 The Art Students League. New York, NY
1999 The New York School of Visual Arts. New York, NY
1998-2000 University of North Carolina. Chapel Hill, NC
SOLO AND TWO PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2025 Hope College, “The Spaces we Inhabit”, Holand, MI
2024 Collective 62, “Becomes Us”, Miami, FL
2022 Tanya Brillembourg Gallery, “Threaded Stories”, Key Biscayne, FL
2020 Galeria 14, “Mental Narratives”, Sonora, Mexico
2016 Consulado de Mexico en Los Angeles, “Small”, Los Angeles, CA
2012 Instituto Cultural de Mexico, “Twice upon a Time…”, Miami, FL
2012 Embassy of Chile, “Twice upon a Time”, Washington, DC
2008 Centro Cultural Plaza Fatima, “Lucha Libre”, Monterrey, Mexico
2007 Instituto Cultural de Mexico, “Lucha Libre", Miami, FL
2005 Instituto Cultural de Mexico, “Trans - Lucid", Miami, FL
2005 Courvoisier Courts, “Art on the Move”, Miami, FL
2003 Kapz Gallery, “Reflections”, Coral Gables, FL
2002 Brickell Key, “Catarinas…A Través de Sus Ojos”, Miami, FL
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025 Laguna, “Mexico Art Week: El Hormiguero by Ant Project”, Mexico City, Mexico
2025 Deering Estate, “Deering Contemporary: Unraveled Tales”, Miami, FL
2024 Pinecrest Gardens, “Unveiling Surrealism”, Pinecrest, FL
2024 Instituto Cultural de Mexico, “La Mujer y sus Causas”, Miami, FL
2023 Galeria Casa EME, “Punto de Inflexion”, Mexico City, Mexico
2023 TIAC Handweaving Museum, “Color Culture”, Clayton, NY
2023 Coral Gables Museum, “The World is a Handkercheif”, Coral Gables, FL
2022 Institituto Cultural de Mexico, “Search of Dreams: The Migrant Experience”, Miami, FL
2022 Pinecrest Gardens, “Life at Street Level”, Pinecrest, FL
2022 Tanya Brillembourg Gallery, “Threaded Stories”, Key Biscayne, FL
2022 DORCAM / ICM / Consulado de Colombia, “El Hilo Conductor II”, Miami, FL
2022 Uncool Artist, “Do Write (Right) to me”, Sao Paulo, Brazil
2021 Pen Project, “The Spaces we Inhabit”, Miami, FL
2021 Uncool Artist, “Do Write (Right) to me”, New York City, NY / Miami, FL
2021 The Frank, “Warp and Weft”, Pembroke Pines, FL
2021 Instituto Cultural de Mexico, “El Hilo Conductor”, Miami, FL
2020 Dina Mitrani Gallery, “The Altered Image”, Miami, FL
2020 The Camp Gallery, “40 Women Pulling the Thread of Social Discourse”, Miami, FL
2020 Adrienne Connelly Fine Arts, “Studio Annex”, Baton Rouge, LA
2019 Galeria Juarez, “Devenir”, Torreón, Mexico
2019 Parc Art fair, Imaginario Galeria, Lima, Peru
2018 Art Basel Miami Beach, 27/20 Artist studios visit - official circuit, Miami, FL
2018 Pinta Miami, Rubber Stamp art projects, Miami, FL
2018 Ch.aco, Rubber Stamp art projects, Santiago, Chile
2018 Instituto Cultural de Mexico, “Migrante: Una Mirada de Género”, Miami, FL
2018 Chase Edwards Gallery, Dreams in Color, Bridgehampton, NY
2017 Pinta Miami, Rubber Stamp art projects, Miami, FL
2017 Ch.aco, Rubber Stamp art projects, Santiago, Chile
2017 Oolite Arts, Studios 27/20, Miami, FL
2017 Galeria Trike, Colectiva, Mexico City, Mexico
2017 Maya Gallery, LA Art Show, Los Angeles, CA
2016 Koubek Art Center, Puro Arte, Miami, FL
2015 ET Gallery, Subasta Fredo, Mexico City, Mexico
2012 Instituto Cultural de Mexico, “5 Artistas Visuales de Mexico”, Miami, FL
2009 GDS Gallery, “Arte Americas 2010”, Miami Beach, FL
2009 Wynwood Box, “Feminine Visual Voices”, Miami, FL
2009 Mexico Pavillion, “Arte Americas 2009”, Miami Beach, FL
2009 Instituto Cultural de Mexico, “Mujer Latina, Mujer Divina”, Miami, FL
2008 Centro Cultural Plaza Fatima, “Imaginario”, Monterrey, Mexico
2006 Lurie Gallery, “Contemporary Mixology”, Miami, FL
2006 Voices for Children Foundation, “Art Box”, Miami, FL
2005 Gobierno de Puerto Rico, “Raices Hispanas”, Miami, FL
2005 La Corona, “MTY Happening”, Monterrey, Mexico
2004 Momenti Gallery, “Sensation of Color”, Miami, FL
2003 City of Miami Cultural Center, “Multi-culturality", Miami, FL
2002 Kapz Gallery, “Beginnings”, Coral Gables, FL
2002 Union Planters Bank, “Hispanic Art Expressions 2002”, Coral Gables, FL
2002 Tower Theater, “Hispanic Art at the Tower”, Miami, FL
2002 Radio Unica, “Radio Unica Exhibition”, Miami, FL
2001 Grove Isle Resort, “Pursuing Instincts”, Coconut Grove, FL
RESIDENCIES
2024 SCAD Art Education Forum. Savannah, GA
2023 Elizabet Hernandez Taller, Backstrap Loom, Chiapas, Mexico
2022 Centro Textil de Cusco, Alpaca tubular weaving, Cusco, Peru
2021 Casa Textil Oaxaca, Wool weaving techniques, Oaxaca, Mexico
2019 Casa Bartolo, Eco-dye, Mexico City, Mexico
2019 Studio Maira Jimena, Eco-dye, Lima, Peru
2019 Trama Textiles, Weaving and Eco-dye, Quetzaltenango, Guatemala
AWARDS
Miami Individual Artist Grant, Miami, FL 2023
SELECTED PUBLICATIONS
Vive Miami, March 2021, Miami, FL
Periodico El Reforma, December 2020, Mexico City, Mexico
Vive Miami, December 2018, Miami, FL
Voyage Miami, May 3, 2018, Miami, FL
Milenio, December 2017, Mexico City, Mexico
El Mercurio, October 2017, Santiago, Chile
Ejecutiva Magazine, September 22, 2015, Miami, FL
El Norte, February 2008, Monterrey, Mexico
The Islander News, September 22, 2005, Key Biscayne, FL
Sueños, October 2005, Bogota, Colombia
La Isla, September 2005, Key Biscayne, FL
El Norte, June 2005, Monterrey, Mexico
El Nuevo Herald, November 11, 2005, Miami, FL
SELECTED COLLECTIONS
Capriles-Brillembourg Collection
McCreedy Collection. Zurich, Switzerland
Embassy of Chile. Washington, DC
Patrimonio del Gobierno de San Pedro Garza Garcia. Monterrey, Mexico