Mexico, 1980
Paola Dávila was born in Oaxaca, Mexico, on October 26, 1980. She studied Visual Arts at the National School of Plastic Arts, UNAM from 1998 to 2002, in that same year she entered the contemporary painting seminar taught by the teacher Ignacio Salazar. From 1999 to 2015 she attended various theory and photography workshops.
For several years she has generated various visual statements derived from photography. Beyond the self-imposed limits in thematic terms (the house, for example), this exercise has allowed her to articulate concerns and locate spaces: inside, outside, and the limits between them. From there, with the landscape as a support: as an extension of situations contained in the intimacy or in the object, she has insisted on opening her way within other thematic and media fields to different complexities of the idea of also inhabiting the public and finding a voice in contemporary photographic narrative.
Paola Dávila's work has been featured in nine individual exhibitions and more than 30 group exhibitions both in Mexico and abroad, among which are: III Landscape Biennial (2019), Museo de Arte de Nogales, Sonora, Juegos (2018) , Cuen Gallery, Oaxaca, Mexico, Schrebergarten (2016), Patricia Conde Galería, Mexico City, La Torre de los Tesoros (2016), Manuel Álvarez Bravo Photographic Center, Oaxaca, Mexico, International Discoveries VI (2016), FOTOFEST. Houston, Paisaje (2006), Yucatán Visual Arts Center, Mexico, New York Photo Festival 2010 Tierney Fellows, New York, Reapertura: Identidades (2010). Museo del Chopo, Mexico, 12th National Photography Biennial (2006). Centro de la Imagen, Mexico.
Awards · In 2002, she received the National Photography Award from the Yucatan Visual Arts Biennial, the Acquisition Award from the Fourth Art Freedom Contest and the Young Creators FOECA grant from the state of Oaxaca. She was a fellow of the program of the Secretariat of Culture of the Government of Mexico City Arte por todas partes in 2002 and in 2005. In 2009 she received Honorable Mention at the International Artist Book Fair organized by the Centro de la Imagen, as well as the Scholarship for Artistic Exchanges and Residencies, FONCA-BANFF. During 2010 he received the Tierney Scholarship awarded by the Tierney Foundation of New York by the Manuel Álvarez Bravo Photographic Center to carry out the Temporales Interiores project. She has been a beneficiary of the Young Creators Program, FONCA in 2003, 2006 and 2011. In 2014 she received the Scholarship for Artistic Exchanges and Residences, FONCA-Land Salzburg of Austria, thanks to which she developed the Schrebergarten project.
In 2017, the City of Oaxaca granted her the degree of Distinguished Citizen, in recognition of her artistic career. In 2019 he obtained a Master's degree in Visual Arts from UNAM with honorable mention. Since 2020 he has been a member of the National System of Art Creators, FONCA, CONACULTA.
Collections · Paola Dávila's work belongs to private and public collections such as the Tierney Foundation, Museo del Chopo, UNAM, Yucatán Institute of Culture, El Carmen Museum, Galería Arte Libertad, Phillips Collection and the National Photo Library, INAH.
