ABOUT
Victoria Molina is a Toluca, Mexico-based artist who is breaking down the barriers between visual art and design. Through her paintings and collages, she explores the personal connections we form with a sense of place. Integrating non-traditional materials, such as food and discarded magazines, into her collages and mixed media works, she reclaims everyday objects and inscribes them with more complex meanings and implications for humanity. With an underlying message encouraging sustainability in the modern world, Molina asks her viewers to question their own relationship with the natural world.
Born in Durango, Mexico, Molina demonstrated an insatiable creative spirit from a young age. Nonetheless, as she prepared for her professional life she compromised her passion to become an artist and dove into the field of design. This path led her to extensively travel, live, and work around the world, each place inspiring her and translating itself into her work. She graduated Magna Cum Laude from the Universidad de Monterrey with a degree in Industrial Design channeling the innovative energy of the city. As part of her studies, she spent time in Torino, Italy that brought a classical and functional aesthetic into her practice.
One of the most foundational experiences, however, in her artistic career was her time spent in Kyoto, Japan. Here, she received technical training through a scholarship to Kioto Kogei Senei Daigaku’s Modern Design and Traditional Techniques program. She began evolving her practice into a fusion of fine arts and design, balancing the creative and the practical in a distinctive artistic voice all her own. Today, her art has become an outlet for her passion for creation but also her connection to the Earth, drawing on her fascination with biology and the relationships she forms with the inspirational places throughout her journey.
Her skills as an artist and designer have won her awards including recognition from the Universidad de Monterrey, a finalist position with the PANERAI Contemporary Art and Sustainable Practices Contest, and being named a top emerging designer by Architectural Digest Magazine. As her acclaim continues to grow, Molina’s work has been featured in solo exhibitions, group shows, and residencies internationally including Galería Pedro Ávila, Museo Galería de Arte Mexiquense, Instituto Tecnológico de Toluca, Lucca Art Fair, Tokyo Designers Week, and Centro Cultural Toluca. She has also had the privilege of sharing her knowledge and career with others through workshops and lectures across the globe in places like New Zealand, Colombia, Brazil, and Mexico.
STUDIES
Industrial Design (Magna Cum Laude)
Universidad de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico 2006-2011
Technical Training “Modern Design and Traditional Techniques”
Kioto Kogei Senei Daigaku (KIT), Kioto, Japan 2013
Academic Exchange
Politécnico di Torino, Torino, Italy 2009
AWARDS
• Finalist of First PANERAI Contemporary Art and Sustainable Practices Contest (2022)
• 2nd place "Mis Fotos de Japón 2019" for the picture "Aves de Fuego, Pesca en Uji (2013)" by ASEMEJA, Mexico City, 2019
• "45 success stories" for the 45th anniversary of Universidad de Monterrey 2014
• Selected "Emerging Designers" Magazine Architectural Digest 2013 for its anniversary edition
• Finalist "Design Icons 2013" by Architectural Digest Magazine 2013
• "Best Students of the State of Nuevo León" by the H. Congreso de Nuevo León 2011
• "Magna Cum Laude Honors" Universidad de Monterrey 2011
• "Recognition of Leadership and Values" Universidad de Monterrey 2011
• "Distinguished Student" Universidad de Monterrey 2008, 2010
• Shortlisted “Lo imaginé, lo diseñé… Hagámoslo” National Stainless Steel Prize 2009
EXHIBITIONS
Exposiciones Individuales / Solo Exhibitions
2021 - “EL CREPITAR DE LAS HOJAS, SOBRE LA IMPERMANENCIA DEL PAISAJE SONORO ” Galería Pedro Ávila, Metepec, State of Mexico
2020 - "HASTA QUE DEJE DE SER COSTILLA" Instituto Tecnológico de Toluca, Metepec, State of Mexico
2019 - "INTROSPECTION AND OBJECTS OF MY DRAWERS" Villas del Campo, Calimaya, State of Mexico
2019 - "NECTAR 030" Museo del Alfeñique, Toluca, State of Mexico
2017 - "ESENCIA" Pedro Ávila Gallery, Metepec, Mexico
2006 - "MUJER DE PLATA" The Coffee Factory, Metepec, State of Mexico
Exposiciones Colectivas / Group Exhibitions
2021- "Feria de Arte EDOMEX 2021" Museo Galería de Arte Mexiquense. Torres Bicentenario, Toluca, State of Mexico
2021- "¿Un Año Perdido?" Centro Cultural Toluca, Toluca, State of Mexico
2021- "Festival Arte 2660" Hotel Margarita, Toluca, State of Mexico
2020 - "Primera Feria de Arte EDOMEX" Museo Galería de Arte Mexiquense. Torres Bicentenario, Toluca, State of Mexico
2020- "Vive México" Museo Zanbatha, Museo del Valle de La Luna, Mexico
2020- "Quetzales" Hotel Misión, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Mexico
2020- "Día mundial del Arte 2020" Asociación Internacional de Artes Plásticas (AIAP) Asociación de Artistas Plásticos de México (ARTAC)
2020 - "Territorio Mexiquense, Radiography of Contemporary Art" Centro Cultural Toluca, State of Mexico
2019 - "Visuality: Gestures and Processes" Museo del Barro de Metepec, State of Mexico
2019 - “Building with Art a Helmet of Help” organized by the Mexican Chamber of the Construction Industry, Centro Cultural Toluca, State of Mexico
2019 - "No Andaba Muerto, Andaba en el Alfeñique" Museo del Alfeñique, Toluca, State of Mexico
2019 - “Miradas Femeninas” Regional Cultural Center of Valle de Bravo, State of Mexico
2018 - "Essays of Matter, the Work in Progress" Áurica Center for Art and Culture, State of Mexico
2018 - "Lucca Art Fair 2018", Lucca, Italy
2015 - "Expo-Venta Arte 2015" Museum of Modern Art of Toluca, State of Mexico
2013 - "Heterogeneus" Tokyo Designers Week, Tokyo, Japan.
Residencias
2016- "Amar Abierto - Residencias Creativas" Ensenada, Baja California
CONFERENCES AND TALKS
"Food Design for Art"
Hotel Margarita, Fonda & Boutique, Toluca, Mexico, 2021
"Festival Arte 2660"
“Food Design y Emociones”
Centro Cultural Riviera de Ensenada, Mexico, 2016
“4to Encuentro Latinoamericano de Food Design”
“Minería de datos aplicado a alimentos mexicanos”
Facultad de Ciencias de la Salud de Porto Alegre, Brasil, 2015
“3er Encuentro Latinoamericano de Food Design”
Design Week Speaker UDESIGN
Universidad de Monterrey, Mexico 2015
“Panorama del Food Design en México”
Universidad Nacional de Colombia and Universidad de los Andes, Bogota Colombia 2014
“2do Encuentro Latinoamericano de Food Design”
“Maize Culture; Tortillas as a Material of Design”
Otago Polytechnic, Dunedin, Nueva Zelanda 2014
Para el “International Food Design Conference & Studio”
“Empoderamiento de la Mujer en la Sociedad del Conocimiento”
Instituto Tecnológico de Toluca, Metepec 2012
“Día Internacional de la Mujer”