statement
My art practice is multidisciplinary, mainly creating murals, installations, drawings, and performance art. I layer and create geometric textures to explore an organic process of fluid connections between symbolism, feeling, spontaneity, and material experimentation. In my performance, I use the body to express the complexity of the self as characters. I create my installations through active meditation using naturally dyed yarns from my country Mexico. Social work is essential to my growth as an artist and person. I develop this through large-scale murals. Through the movement of stringing pieces, working with communities, and my spiritual practice, I continue to bind a dimensional representation of the intuitive language between material, experience, and the intangible.
BIO
Arantxa Ximena Rodriguez
Arantxa Ximena Rodriguez (AXR) was born and raised in Mexico City in 1988, and has been living in New York City since 2017. AXR received a Master of Fine Arts in Fine Arts from the School of Visual Arts (SVA) in 2019, and has continued to live in the United States as a recipient of the O-1 Visa (Artist Visa).
AXR has a multidisciplinary art practice, primarily focusing on murals, installations, and drawings. In all her work, AXR layers imagery to create complex geometric textures, exploring the fluid connections between symbolism, feeling, spontaneity, and material experimentation. AXR is a longtime practitioner of Tibetan Buddhism, which has become a considerable part of her creative process. Her installations are built through active meditation, using naturally dyed yarns from her home country. She exhibited this work at UNTITLED Art Fair in Miami in 2019 during Art Basel. AXR developed her most recent large-scale artwork, entitled Choleric Buddha Lotus, during her artist residency at Mass MoCA in September, 2022.
Community engagement is a central component of AXR’s work as an artist and a person. This is readily apparent in her large-scale public murals, two of which reside in Lincoln Medical Center in the Bronx, NY. These murals were created in collaboration with the local community the hospital serves. The first, completed in 2020, was funded by the Laurie M. Tisch Illumination Fund; the second, completed in 2022, was funded by a City Arts Corps Grant. This mural was unveiled on Women’s Day, and was covered by news outlets including the Bronx Voice, News 12, and Fox. AXR is a current awardee of the New York City Mural Arts Project (NYCMAP), and is painting a 6000 square-foot mural with the community of East Harlem.
AXR also develops her social practice through continued work as an educator. She is a recipient of the SU-CASA residency award, where she teaches art to seniors at the RiseBoro Community Partnership. AXR also teaches arts and crafts to preschoolers through the ProjectArt residency.
In 2021, in response to an experience creating a large-scale commission, AXR wrote an opinion piece entitled “Artists Should Never Take on a Commission Without a Contract,” which was published in Hyperallergic.
AXR is currently experimenting on paper and fabric, elevating a series of drawings she made during the pandemic through new material explorations, including the use of fire to activate the work.
With her installations, community engagement, and spiritual practice, AXR continues to bind a dimensional representation incorporating the intuitive languages of material, experience, and intangibility. She is continuously motivated by her endless thirst to inspire as an artist, and keep evolving as a human.
