Beatriz Morales

Born and raised in Mexico City, Beatriz Morales left her native country in 2001 to pursue largely autodidactic studies in painting, pottery and fashion design. Morales combines an investigative, abstract-expressionist approach, at times combined with figurative and illustrative components, creating a concretely conceptualized body of work.

“Beatriz Morales’s series Tecuani—a Nahua word meaning ‘beast,’ ‘man-eater,’
‘jaguar,’ or ‘undomesticated animal’—are made with agave fiber, a material sacred in
pre-Hispanic Mexico and central to Indigenous cosmologies. Drawing from the vegetal world, Morales incorporates raw fiber into her work to create textures that resemble animal fur or human hair. Engaging the fiber’s organic unpredictability, she foregrounds its ancestral character and resistance to full control. Color is introduced through natural dyes—such as orange extracted from palo de Brasil and deep hues obtained from blends of pomegranate and campeche—further rooting the work in processes shaped by harvests, water, and the rhythms of nature. In her work embroidery and gesture coexist: delicate white stitches form linear marks and scattered points, while expansive areas of textile—stitched, layered, and textured—generate a painterly surface. The work is animated by contrasts—between chaos and order, artisanal and industrial, raw and refined—unfolding across multiple scales, where minute, controlled details emerge within vast fields of fiber and color.”

Laura Hakel