Biography

Susana Villa (b. 1971, Madrid, Spain) is a New York–based visual artist whose pictorial practice investigates identity as a processual and stratified construction. Rather than understanding identity as a stable entity, her work approaches it as an accumulation of experiences, displacements, and social conditioning. Within this framework, the subject takes shape over time through layers that overlap, shift, and are continuously rewritten.

Her work centers on the female figure as a site where social expectations, behavioral norms, and strategies of self-protection are inscribed, regulating the relationship between visibility and vulnerability. Villa conceives the notion of the layer both conceptually and materially: as a record of lived experience and as a social mask that mediates between the body, subjectivity, and exposure to the external world.

Villa trained in painting at the Escuela Superior de Conservación y Restauración de Bienes Culturales in Madrid and later studied at the New York Academy of Art. Her early material-driven approach, rooted in Spanish Informalism and particularly influenced by the legacy of the Grupo El Paso, emphasized matter, gesture, and formal economy as vehicles of expressive intensity. This language evolved toward a more expressive figurative vocabulary following her encounter with Francis Bacon’s retrospective at the Museo del Prado, marking a decisive shift in her engagement with the human figure.

Her relocation from Spain to New York further transformed her practice. The experience of cultural displacement, linguistic dislocation, and adaptation introduced new tensions into her work: color becomes more intense, while the figure tends to fragment or blur, reflecting the friction between the desire for belonging and the instability of identity within an unfamiliar environment.

Villa works primarily with oil paint for its capacity to generate strata, transparencies, and visible revisions. Scraping, chance, and the incorporation of collage and paper form part of an accumulative process in which the material retains the memory of decisions and shifts made throughout the work’s development. Across series such as Introspection, Hiding Place, and Islands, the female figure emerges, withdraws, or disappears altogether, allowing matter and color to assume expressive weight. In this context, the figure does not function as an individual representation, but as a persistent trace of what remains active beneath the surface of the image.

Her work has been exhibited internationally at institutions including the European Museum of Modern Art (MEAM, Barcelona), Miami Dade College with IRREVERSIBLE Projects, the Mexican Cultural Institute, and the Zhou B Art Center (Chicago). In 2024, Visionary Projects selected her work for digital display across New York public transit stations, and she completed a residency at MAC Florencio de la Fuente (Cuenca, Spain), where her work entered the museum’s permanent collection. Most recently, her work has been presented at the Woodstock Artists Association & Museum (WAAM) as part of the museum’s 2026 exhibition program. Her work was also presented during Miami Art Week 2025.

CV

Born

1971 Madrid, Spain. Lives and works in New York.

Education

2015 - Fine Arts (Painting and Drawing) / New York Academy of Art / New York City

2001 - Conservation and Restoration of Cultural Heritage School / Madrid, Spain (Specialized in

Painting)

1997 - Architekt School, Drawing / Madrid, Spain

1996 - Interior Design / CENP Interior Design School / Madrid, Spain

Additional Training:

2023 - Portrait Workshop with Eloy Morales / Madrid, Spain

2000 - Symposium “Goya: Restoration of Masterpieces” / Museo Nacional del Prado / Madrid, Spain

Exhibitions

2026 - WAAM Media Annual: Waxworks Show / WAAM / Woodstock, NY

2025 - Irreversible Projects / Aqua Art Miami

2025 - 440 Gallery / Brooklyn, NY

2025 - The Whale Building Collective / Brooklyn, NY

2025 - Sunset Park Community Show, District 38 City Council Office / Brooklyn, NY

2025 - MEAM - Espacio Jovellanos / Madrid, Spain

2025 - MEAM - Museu Europeu d’Art Modern / Barcelona, Spain

2025 - West Village Salon / Visionary Projects Gallery / New York, NY

March 2025 - A Whisper 2 A Scream - Healing Through the Arts, Oh Art Foundation at Zhou B Art

Center / Chicago, IL

January 2025 - NYC Public Art / Visionary Projects / New York, NY

December 2024 - Ellas / Curated by Surfergirl NYC Gallery at Instituto Cultural de México / Miami, FL

October 2024 - Women’s Voices / Miami Dade College Gallery / Miami, FL

2023 - The Art of Leaving a Mark / Miami Dade College Gallery / Miami, FL

2023 - B Dry Goods Gallery / Brooklyn, NY

2023 - Woodstock Byrdcliffe Guild Gallery / These Days Show / Woodstock, NY

2021 - Estampa Art Fair /Espacio Mados curated by Álvaro Aláazar/ Madrid, Spain

2017 - Hankyu Umeda Gallery / Osaka, Japan

2017 - Monmouth Museum / Lincroft, NJ

2017 - HdT Gallery - Mera Coincidencia (Mere Coincidence) / Valladolid, Spain

2017 - Factoría Cultural Martinez - This Is Not Be Eaten, Homage Magritte / Barcelona, Spain

2016 - Hankyu Umeda Gallery / Osaka, Japan

2016 - Plaxall Gallery, LIC Show / Queens, NY

2016 - United Nations Headquarters, Women Together Awards Art Auction / Participating Artist / New

York, NY

2016 - One Art Space Gallery, TOAST / New York, NY

2015 - Hankyu Umeda Gallery / Osaka, Japan

2015 - Pleiades Gallery - Small Works / New York, NY

2015 - One Art Space / Black & White Show / New York, NY

2014 - One Art Space, TOAST / New York, NY

2013 - TOAST Show / New York, NY

2012 - Guilles Larrain Art Gallery / New York, NY

2002 - Power International Gallery / Artists Around the World / Miami, FL

2001 - Coronado Award / Young Artist Award / Madrid, Spain

2001 - Power International Gallery / Miami, FL

2000 - Concepto Gallery / Madrid, Spain

2000 - Castellana Subastas Award Exhibit / Madrid, Spain

1999 - Young Painters Award and Exhibition / Pozuelo, Madrid, Spain

Awards

2023 - Painting Award / Miami Dade College / Miami, FL

2017 - Monmouth Museum Award / Lincroft, NJ

2001 - Coronado Art Award / Young Artist Award / Juried by Antonio López / Madrid, Spain

2000 - Castellana Painting Grant / Castellana Subastas / Madrid, Spain

1999 - Young Painters Award and Exhibition / Organized by El Corte Inglés – Ámbito Cultural, Foro

Cívico Cultural de Pozuelo, La Voz de Pozuelo, La Voz de Majadahonda. Jury included Ángel

Orcajo, Juan Genovés, Ramón Bilbao, Rinaldo Paluzzi, and Jesús Gironés / Madrid, Spain

Permanent Collections

Government Palace of Segovia, Spain

ChaShaMa Foundation

Irreversible Projects

Museum of Contemporary Art Florencio de la Fuente / Huete, Spain

Residencies

2025 - VI Artist Residency / MAC Florencio de la Fuente / Huete, Cuenca, Spain

2021 - ChaShaMa Visual Arts Studio Program / Brooklyn, NY

PRESS

December 2024 - Guest Speaker, Doral Arts and Beyond / “Figurative Abstraction and Symbolism: A

Visual Arts Proposal” / Hosted by Elsa Delgado / Doral Voice Radio

December 2024 - Art Miami Magazine / “The Emotional Depth of Susana Villa’s Painted Worlds” (p. 28)

November 19, 2024 - EIN Presswire (featured on News Channel 8) / “Ellas: Mexican and Spanish Art

by Women Trailblazers in America”

October 28, 2024 - Artburst / “Women’s Voices: A Different Exhibition with a Global Perspective” by

Dennys Matos

November 3, 2024 - El Nuevo Herald, Galería 305 / “Women’s Voices: A Different Exhibition with a

Global Perspective” / Featured artwork at Miami Dade College Hialeah Campus

June 28, 2024 - Artburst / “The Art of Leaving a Mark: Art and Excellence by MDCH and Irreversible

Projects” by Miguel Sirgado

2023 - The Art of Leaving a Mark - Exhibition Catalog

August 2017 - TV News Castilla y León / Mera Coincidencia Exhibition Interview,Valladolid, Spain

July 27, 2017 - Diario de Valladolid (El Mundo, Spain) Artist Attracted by the Territory as a Seed” / Group exhibition Mera coincidencia, Fuente Olmedo, Valladolid