Alicia Paz was born in 1967 and grew up in Mexico, before living in the USA, France, Germany and now the UK. Her nomadic background and sense of “arborescent” identity prompt her to explore notions of migration, genealogy and intercultural exchange. 

Because they reflect her own cultural hybridity, representations of azulejos occupy a central place in her paintings. Indeed, from the 16th century onwards, it is possible to follow the trade routes of these blue-and-white ceramic tiles, from China to Spain via Mexico, then on to England, Portugal and the Netherlands, producing endless variations along the way. Alicia Paz is fascinated by the back-and-forth between painting on ceramics and painted ceramics in trompe-l’œil, as well as by the concept of the grid and of the fragment. The depictions of yellow paint joints between imperfectly contoured tiles evoke the technique of kintsugi - “golden joint” - which makes accidents visible and sees them as sources of enrichment and beauty. 

The choice of iconographic territory from the Decorative Arts, long considered minor arts, for her representations of women is not innocent: it allows for coherence between what is said and how it is said, since both content and form have suffered from the same marginalization and devaluation. The artist wishes to elevate these art forms and the world of female creativity and thus, redress the enormous historical imbalance. 

In earlier works such as Go-go Garden (2010) and Tree of Paint (2015), the structure of a tree (the trunk branching out in many directions) is used to explore different approaches to marking, ranging from the photorealistic treatment of the tree's bark to cartoon-like stains and foliage. There is a fluid, orchestrated alternation between the real and the artificial, between an object and its representations.