Paula Castro

Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1978

            Through a combination of handcrafted processes and conceptual operations, Paula Castro has developed a distinctive artistic language rooted in the use of professional materials and the transformation of domestic objects. Her practice explores humor, involuntary making, and the possibility that forms may become confused, strained, or distorted, giving rise to bodies and images that appear precarious, unstable, or in the process of becoming. She studied Graphic Design at the University of Buenos Aires (FADU) and pursued a self-directed education in visual arts in both Paris and Buenos Aires.

            Over the past several years, her work has been shaped by a particular interest in Argentine painting and its central position within the country's art history, often remaining impermeable to other forms of artistic production. Her practice brings together references drawn from Argentine visual arts and contemporary culture—from television series, memes, and internet stickers to her own body, physical pain, discomfort, and humor. She participated in the Artists Program at Torcuato Di Tella University in 2015 and was awarded the Oxenford Collection Travel Grant in 2018. She received the Azcuy Prize in 2021 and, in 2023, was awarded the Artist Grant from the Ama Amoedo Foundation.

            Castro copies, cuts, draws, underlines, volumetrically reconstructs, and geometrically abstracts fragments of this artistic history, intertwining them with her own personal history, everyday life, parallel work as an illustrator, and the influences of conceptual and Arte Povera practices absorbed during her seven-year stay in France. Her work has been exhibited both individually and collectively at institutions and galleries including Galerie Dohyang Lee (Paris), Centro Cultural Recoleta, MACsa, Mite, Flux Factory (New York), MALBA, among others. She currently lives and works in Buenos Aires.