Hilda Palafox – The Open Vessel

Hilda Palafox is known for glorious, colorful murals and confident, comfortable paintings of women, but an appreciation of her ceramics gives extra insight into an artist who exquisitely portrays the fragile and the sturdy.

- By Gwynned Vitello. Portrair by Karla Ximena Cerón

Hilda Palafox is known for glorious, colorful murals and confident, comfortable paintings of women, but an appreciation of her ceramics gives extra insight into an artist who exquisitely portrays the fragile and the sturdy. In making vessels that can stand alone or hold something special, she continues work as a carrier of the material, as well as the intangible. She herself is like a vessel, channeling new ideas, people and places, portraying the humble and the mighty, expressing life’s dualities in work that is approachable, but full of depth. I spoke with the Mexico City-based artist who just showed her newest series, Un día a la vez, at Thinkspace Projects.

Gwynned Vitello: In a previous interview, you remember a tarot reading where the moon card came up frequently. I don’t know anything about tarot cards, but that seems so fitting. For me, it recalls phases of the moon, and your images portray so many moods in what look like simple round shapes. Were you surprised at what the cards revealed?