Ruth Leonela Buentello is a visual artist and arts educator, whose practice is rooted in painting and often bridges other disciplines, including community/public arts and collaborative installations. Her work centers on representations of Xicana/o/x working-class communities. In 2011, she earned her Bachelors of Fine Arts at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.
From 2009-2015 she co-founded and participated in the Mas Rudas Art Collective, a team of four women exploring socio-cultural examinations of Chican@ identity, cultural representations of gender, and the co-optation of Chican@/Tejan@/Latin@ history and culture.
Ruth has exhibited extensively in and outside of Texas including the following: the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Self Help Graphics, Slanguage Studio, Meadows Museum of Art, Mexic-Arte Museum, Art Room Houston, National Portrait Gallery, Kemper Museum, National Museum of Mexican Art, Fort Works Gallery, Ro2 Space, Art pace San Antonio, Luminaria Lights Festival and Centro Cultural Aztlan.In 2017, she was nominated to receive the 2017 Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors grant. In 2019, her work was selected in the Outwin Boochever National Portrait Competition in Washington D.C. where her work currently travels across the country for the following 2 years. She has served as an artist-in-residence at the Joan Mitchell Center in New Orleans and at the Institute of Humanities University of Michigan, where she had her first solo exhibition. Her most recent project is Memory Migration Maps, a site-specific permanent public art installation within the City Hall of San Antonio. Ruth is currently awaiting and preparing for an upcoming exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery in October 2022.
Contact:
ruthbuentello@gmail.com