Ana Paula García Benavides (b. 1996, Monterrey, Mexico) is a London-based Mexican artist whose practice considers how internal emotional states might take material form, particularly those that remain unspoken, unresolved or resistant to language.
Working through colour, gesture and layering, Benavides approaches painting as a process through which memory and emotion are registered rather than represented. Each work begins with an instinctive palette, often drawn from a particular memory or experience and evolves through a negotiation between pigment, gesture and material. The saturated landscapes and visual cultures of her childhood in Mexico inform this chromatic language, alongside her interest in subconscious and spiritual states.
Benavides works with marble powder, wax, oil and pastel building surfaces that shift between density and exposure. Her canvases are primed with clear gesso, leaving the raw ground visible beneath and between layers of pigment. Accumulation, abrasion and shifts in texture register the gestures and material decisions through which the work takes form.
Vulnerability, tension and introspection emerge through these processes, operating across sensory and embodied registers.
EDUCATION
Masters in Painting
Royal College of Art, London, UK — 2021–2023
BA (Hons) Advertising and Marketing Communications
ITESM, Monterrey, México — 2018
2025
• Breakthrough, Hope 93 Gallery, London, UK
2023
• Why Are We So Afraid of Feeling?, Lupo Gallery, Milan, Italy curated by Martha Onsola
2026
• A line has a time on it, Carta Magna, curated by Vittoria Beltrame, London, UK.
• Residue, Hands-on Projects, curated by Senem Bilgin-Keys, London, UK.
• Artsy Foundations 2026, Wilder Gallery, London, UK. (Online)
• Interwoven, Ixchel Restaurant, curated by Valeria Nikitina, London, UK.
2025
• In Flux, Kenin Projects, Dubai, UAE
• Celebrating Women in Arts, Mexican Embassy in London, UK (Guest Artist)
• Two, Haricot Gallery, London, UK
2024
• Foundations, Wilder Gallery, London, UK (Online)
• Tear Rubber, Ojiri Gallery, London, UK
• Under the Canopy, Mexican Embassy, London, UK
• The Dimension of Feeling, Vortic Gallery, curated by Maria Korolevskaya, London, UK (Online)
• A Journey into the Unknown, Haricot Gallery, London, UK
• Waves Wash Over, Wilder Gallery, London, UK (Duo Exhibition)
• Silent Presence, Tabula Rasa & Veenue Gallery, Shanghai
• Morrison Foerster Art Prize Exhibition, Scapel Building, London, May–Nov 2024
2023
• RCA Degree Show, Truman Brewery, London, UK
• You Can’t Always Get What You Want, Haricot Gallery, London, UK
• How Things Hold, T293 Gallery, Rome, Italy
• The Consolation of Clinamen, Tabula Rasa Gallery, Beijing, China, curated by Zhang Jiarong
• Secret Gardens, Wilder Gallery, London, UK, curated by Matilda Liu
• Cacotopia 07, Annka Kultys Gallery, London, UK
• LUMA, Apsara Studio, Aora Space, London, UK, curated by Jenn Cellis
2022
• WIP RCA, Soho Revue, London, UK
• Art of a Postcard Summer Auction, London, UK, curated by Gemma Peppe (Auction)
• I Feel Everything All at Once, Natasha Arselan Gallery, London, UK (Online)
• 2026 – Paraíso Art Fair, Art Elsewhere curated by Senem Cagla Bilgin-Keys, London, UK
• 2025 – Art 021 Beijing, Tabula Rasa Gallery, Beijing, China
• 2025 – Guest Panelist – Latin American Art, The Graduate Gallery, in collaboration with Lily Gabriela Jewelry
• 2024 – Staff Prize, Morrison Foerster Art Prize Exhibition
• 2023 – Painting To (Art x Music) Collaboration with Painting To, DJ Ron & DalerRowney
• 2024– Volunteer Art Instructor, St Vincent’s Centre Brixton, London, UK
RESIDENCIES
• 2026– Hands On Projects, Artist Residency — Creating a More Human Future (4th Edition), London, UK
· “Ones to Watch”, Artiq meets the new generation of London Artists: https://artiq.co/article/ones-to-watch/
“The Human Algorithm: Why Ana Benavides’s Paintings Reveal What Generative Art Can’t”: https://www.nft-magazine.com/features/the-human-algorithm-why-ana-benavidess-paintings-reveal-what-generative-art-cant
“ANA BENAVIDES: THE EMOTIONAL ALCHEMIST”: https://fadmagazine.com/2025/06/26/ana-benavides-the-emotional-alchemist/
“Interview Reflejo del alma” https://www.theotherartgirl.com/home/reflejo-del-alma
· “Lily Gabriella Fine Jewellery and The Graduate Gallery celebrate Latin American Design at Burlington Arcade” https://www.retail-jeweller.com/events/lily-gabriella-fine-jewellery-and- the-graduate-gallery-celebrate-latin-american-design-at burlington-arcade-12-05-2025/
· “LUMA: 20 international artists & designers in collaboration across 8,000 sqft” https://fadmagazine.com/2023/01/20/luma-20-international-artists-designers-in-collaboration-across-8000-sqft/
· “Su arte trasciende fronteras” https://www.elnorte.com/su-arte-trasciende-fronteras/ar3030221
· “THE TOP 5 ART EXHIBITIONS TO SEE IN LONDON RIGHT NOW”https://fadmagazine.com/2023/01/15/the-top-5-art-exhibitions-to-see-in-london-right-now-5/?fbclid=PAAabdzyAmxQmI3s1qVD6-1Cj_FtgZHBkop_rTBFuFk483isWDXTQsmEqLDFU
· “Why are we so afraid of feeling? Ana Benavides solo show da L:U:P:O” https://www.lamiafinanza.it/2023/10/why-are-we-so-afraid-of-feeling-ana-benavides-solo-show-da-lupo/