Gina Gwen Palacios was born in Taft, Texas. She currently resides in San Benito, TX and is an Assistant Professor of Painting/Drawing and Brownsville Coordinator at The University of Texas at Rio Grande Valley. She earned an MFA in Painting from the Rhode Island School of Design, a Post-Baccalaureate Certificate in Studio Art at Brandeis University, an MA from The University of Texas at Austin in Instructional Technology, a BA from Texas A&M University - Corpus Christi in TV/Film and an AA from Del Mar College in Radio/Television.

 

Gina has exhibited throughout Texas and the US, including New York City, Boston, Providence, RI, Newport, RI, and Arlington, VA, as well in Abu Dhabi. Recent shows include: Paperworks in North Bethesda, MD, Rights and Wrongs: Citizenship, Belonging, and The Vote in Baltimore, MD, Making Common in San Francisco, CA, and Castilian Roses in December at the San Benito Cultural Heritage Museum in San Benito, TX.

 

Drawing on her family history and Mexican American identity, Gina uses traditional and non-traditional materials, to highlight an often underrepresented geographic and cultural narrative. Growing up in South Texas, she absorbed her parents’ stories of migrant farm work, cotton picking, and the discrimination they experienced in the region. Although vast expanses of the southwestern US were once part of Mexico, Mexican American families who have deep roots in the area are treated as outsiders, as usurpers of the land and resources their families have occupied, in many cases, for generations. She creates portraits of family history, using colors and materials that emphasize their connection to their surroundings and the long cultural lineage of which they are a part of.

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