Ruth Leonella Buentello

Ruth received her Bachelors of Fine Arts at the school of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2008. Ruth is a recipient of the 2017 Joan Mitchell Painters and Sculptors grant. Since graduating she has exhibited her work in group exhibitions at the Art Institute of Chicago, Self Help Graphics in Los Angeles, the Museo Alameda in San Antonio, Texas, the Slanguage Studio in Los Angeles, California, The University of Texas at San Antonio Fine Arts Gallery, Mexic-Arte Museum in Austin, Texas, and Unit B Gallery in San Antonio, Texas. In 2009 she founded the Mas Rudas collective in collaboration with like-minded Chicana artists. Through Mas Rudas her work has evolved to explore the socio-cultural examinations of Chican@ identity, cultural representations of gender, and the co-optation of Chican@/Tejan@/Latin@ history and culture. In 2010, she received an Artist Travel Grant from Artpace to study the art of Nikki de Saint Phalle in Italy and France. In 2011, she was chosen to participate in the Young Latino Artists 16 Thought Cloud Exhibition at Mexic-Arte Museum. In 2012 she was a resident at Serie Project in Austin, TX. She served as the Community Mural/Public Art Program Coordinator at San Anto Cultural Arts for four years, where she managed the creation and implementation of community mural projects. Ruth is currently working on her own projects an artist with a passion for empowering communities through the creation of her work, public art.

Artist Statement

My work examines gender, culture, and place through use of paints and fabric to capture narratives of brown subjects and their relationships within domestic spaces. My fascination with human relationships and spaces provides an endless source of inspiration for me. The settings take place in domestic spaces and more specifically, depict familial interactions of the working class. My process involves concentrating on significant cultural moments that have shaped identity for me. I employ my settings as characters, allowing them to frame a story, becoming archetypes of brown interior and exteriors of homes. I see my work as a way of creating familiarity with brown subjects within the canon of art. Through this media I am creating contemporary depictions of south Texas landscapes.​