
Carolina Ayala Aguilar
Born in Mexico City in 1986, she currently lives and works in Yucatán. Her journey into painting began in architecture and design, which still shapes how she builds spaces, moods, and scenes in her art. She studied Architecture and earned a Master’s degree in Product Design and Innovation at Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, later completing a Master of Science in Architectural Lighting at the Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden.
While studying in Sweden, she explored how light can tell stories and used watercolor to create a project about forced migration from Syria to Sweden. This project was a turning point, inspiring her to use art to reveal hidden realities. After working as an architect in Germany, she returned to Mexico. The isolation of the pandemic became another key moment, prompting her to invent imaginary worlds where daily life, nature, and fiction come together. Since then, painting has become the focus of her professional practice. Her work shifts fluidly among abstraction, figuration, and surrealism. She draws inspiration from coincidences, unexpected encounters, dreams, and subtle hints that suggest more beneath the surface. With humor, delicacy, and mystery, she creates clue-filled scenes that invite viewers to imagine their own stories.
Her work has appeared in many exhibitions in recent years. In 2025, she joined other artists in Selva y agua para la vida at the main gallery of the José Peón Contreras Theater in Mérida. In 2023, she was part of a group show with the Van Gogh Art Gallery in Madrid and the International Contemporary Art Fair in Monaco. In 2022, she contributed to the exhibition Migrar, todas las miradas at the Mérida City Museum. That year, she also gave a talk and held a solo exhibition called Death and Other Realities in Art. In 2021, she was a finalist in the Camaradas Mex-UK art competition, organized by the Embassy of Mexico in the United Kingdom. She has continued to learn through watercolor workshops with Agustín González and acrylic painting sessions with Ariel Guzmán.
Her painting explores the invisible layers of reality: stories hidden within objects, coincidences that feel like clues, and possibilities that can arise from seemingly minor decisions. She seeks to spark the viewer’s curiosity about things we do not see, yet may nonetheless exist.
RESUME
Education
2017 – 2018
M.C. Architectural Lighting Design
Kungliga Tekniska Högskolan, Sweden.
2013 – 2014
M. Industrial Design and Product Innovation
Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, Mexico.
2004 – 2010
Bachelor’s Degree in Architecture
Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey, México.
Lighting Design.
Universidad Diego Portales, Chile.
Courses
Acrylic Painting Workshop – M. Ariel Guzmán / Galería Dos Mundos
Drawing and Watercolor – M. Agustín González / Agustín Galería
Solo Exhibitions
2022
Death and Other Realities in Art, solo exhibition and talk,
Decu Downtown Hotel. Merida, Mexico.
Group exhibitions
2026
Open house, Galería Casa Jaguara. Merida, Mexico.
Brit Fest, Galería 2Mun2. Merida, Mexico.
2025
50 x 60 x 54, Galería 2Mun2. Merida, Mexico.
Selva y agua para la vida, Main gallery of the José Peón Contreras Theater. Merida,Mexico.
2024
Summer Exhibition 2024, Lux Perpetua. Merida, Mexico.
2023
Colores para la Paz, Alianza Francesa. Merida, Mexico.
8 abstracciones en 2 Mundos, Galería 2Mun2. Merida, Mexico.
International Contemporary Art Fair, Espace Fontvieille. Principality of Monaco.
Illusion, Van Gogh Art Gallery. Madrid, Spain.
Yucatán celebra a Francia, Alianza Francesa. Merida, Mexico.
2022
Migrar, todas las miradas, Museo de la Ciudad. Merida, Mexico.
Competitions
2021
Finalist Camaradas Mex-UK Art Competition/ Embassy of Mexico in the United
Kingdom