ISISRODRIGUEZ
CONTEMPORARY MYTH PAINTER
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BIOGRAPHY OF ISIS RODRIGUEZ
Isis Rodriguez is an American artist born in 1964 in Los Angeles California to a Mexican American father and a Puerto Rican mother. She is considered a pioneer in Nepantlic Art devoted to the philosophy of Chicana writer and philosopher, Gloria Anzaldúa from her essay, “Toward a New Consciousness”.
1964-1988 EARLY LIFE
Her first introduction to fine art was inside the Catholic where she learned to read oil paintings, sculptures and stain glass as allegorical art. As a child, she taught herself proportion by copying Hannah-Barbera cartoons by hand and was entered into after school programs to enrich her creativity at The Adventure Center in Topeka Kansas, early and mid 70’s. She was placed in several fairs and exhibits at the Library winning blue ribbons and recognized as gifted artist. She graduated from Seaman High in Topeka Kansas in 1983.
Isis Rodriguez with Art Works Graduation
University of Kansas 1988
Isis Rodriguez with Snake Print Topeka Kansas, Circa mid 1970s
1983-1990 EDUCATION
In 1983 she attended Washburn University on a private scholarship, studying under Professor Edward Navone, and later transferred to the University of Kansas where she studied art under Master print maker Professor Cima Katz. Her interests included classes in mythology, psychology, religion and philosophy. In 1988, she received her Bachelors of Fine Art in Painting. A year later, Isis was accepted into The San Francisco Art Institute, to work on her Masters of Fine Art in painting where she explored art for social responsibility and sex positive feminism.
1989-1997 EARLY CAREER: ART & ACTIVISM
“My Life as a Comic Stripper”
Isis investigated sex positive feminism by walking into a strip club and auditioning. Her influences were artists, Judy Chicago, Ana Mendietta, Yolanda Lopez and philosopher Gloria Anzaldúa.
Isis had her first solo exhibition in 1997 called, “My Life as a Comic Stripper” in San Francisco at Galeria de la Raza, curated by Yolanda Lopez, which catapulted her into the California art scene as a “Feminist Pop Artist”. She was selected into the 2nd Bay Area Now Exhibition at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, which recognizes emerging artists. She was represented by Catherine Clark Gallery in San Francisco and Patricia Correa Gallery in Bergamot Station, Los Angeles California from 1997-2006.
During this time, Isis was involved in the underground activist movements, Exotic Dancer’s Alliance”where her sex positive art was used to promote labor rights for sex workers thru events to fundraise for class action lawsuits against clubs that extorted the dancers for over $200.00usd a shift, and coerced prostitution. They won several lawsuits over 5 million dollars in San Francisco clubs to form unions and receive payments for lost wages.
From 1997- 2006, Isis exhibited nationally in the United States mostly in California. Notable museums include The San Jose Museum of Art, The Triton Museum, Santa Clara, The McPherson Center in Santa Cruz.
Isis Rodriguez with mentor, Yolanda Lopez 1990 San Francisco, California, USA. Photo Credit: Denis Gaxiola
""No More" 10"x12" Acrylic, Inks over Bristol Isis Rodriguez 1996
Isis Rodriguez, "Zapatista Stripper", The Mexterminator Project, San Francisco, CA USA 1998. Photo Credit: Eugene Castro
1997-2006 MID CAREER: Performance Art & Activism
Guillermo Gomez Peña invited Isis to collaborate in his performance art projects to create new female bicultural archetypes, which she referred to as “shadow-types” and “meta-types” in the lates 90’s-2006’s, for “The Mexterminator” 1997, "The Chica-Iranian Project” 2004 and “Nostalgia” 2006-2017. Here experience in performance art inspired her to continue painting.
2006-2017 ESTABLISHED CAREER “Legends from the Realm of Nepantla” Oaxaca Mexico
In 2006 Isis was awarded an artist residency "La Curtiduria” in Oaxaca de Juarez by world renown Oaxacan painter, Damián Flores, where she investigated shame and the 16th century Nahua word, “nepantla” meaning, “in the middle of things” in comparison with Gloria Anzaldúa’s definition, “torn between ways.”
While there, the artist underwent a spiritual awakening and she changed her style from Feminist Pop Art to Feminist Baroque, applying the Italian method of “risparmio” to develop a new series of darkly glamourous masked women in lingerie and military attire to protest shame, "Legends from the Realm of Nepantla". Her works were selected by Gloria Maldonado Anso for “Insurrectas y Estridentes en México a 100 años de Simone de Beauvoir” La Festival Internacional Cervantino, Museo de Alhóndiga de Granaditas Guanajuato, Mexico.
2017-PRESENT Galeria Nepantla, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato Mexico
Isis moved permanently to the artist haven and UNESCO heritage center, San Miguel de Allende, Guanajuato to establish her studio and gallery, Galeria Nepantla, where she continues to produce her “nepantlic art”. Check out her current series about the Quinceañera, "Majestic".
"The Seeker" 28"x40"x2" Oil over Wood, Isis Rodriguez 2019
Photo Credit: Lander Rodriguez .
"Defiant Dignity" Documentary about Isis Rodriguez and Legends from the Realm of Nepantla
Her international exhibitions in Latin America have been the Fondo Nacional de las Artes, Buenos Aires, in Argentina, and the prestigious Cervantino Art Festival 2007, Museo Alhóndiga de Granaditas Regional Museum, Guanajuato Mexico, Instituto de Arte y Cultura, Celaya, Guanajuato.
Her artwork has been critiqued and published in several books, "Women and Art: Contested Territory" Judy Chicago and Edward Lucie Smith, 1999, Dangerous Border Crossers, Guillermo Gómez-Peña 2000, "Vicious, Delicious, and Ambitious: 20th Century Women Artists” Sherri Cullison, 2002, Ethno-Techno, Guillermo Gómez-Peña 2005, “Chicana Art: The Politics of Spiritual and Aesthetic Altarities” Laura E. Pérez, 2007 and “Exotic Resistance” by Gigi Otalvaro-Hormillosa 2024.
Isis Rodriguez with her current nepantlic series, "Majestic", in her art studio in San Miguel de Allende 2026.