Rafaela

Rafaela Tellaeche (b. 1997) from Mexico City graduated from the National School of Painting, Sculpting and Printmaking "La Esmeralda" in 2019. She obtained a masters in Contemporary Art Practice by the Royal College of Art in 2023. She works with the image of the hand portrayed by her own hands. Rafaela uses techniques such as drawing, relief etching, embroidery, and textile to emphasize the importance of the handmade in her process. Her work is often permeated by existence and metaphysics discourses by using the hand, tautology, language and repetition. She understands the hand as a symbol, as a sign, as meaning and altogether, as the constructor of symbols, signs and meaning. Her work with language aims to decontextualize certain words or concepts so we can reflect on the behavior we have around them. Her discourse around existence whirls around concerns of being and, one day, not being at all. Rafaela digests her existential queries through precariousness, fragility and tenderness to access a naïveté in a process that has become a ritual. The fragility of the techniques speak to the intricacy of existence.

Rafaela has had a solo show in Galeria Casa Lamm in 2022 entitled "De manos a manías, sobre tautologías y otras necedades" and has participated in various collective exhibitions both in Mexico and abroad; such exhibitions include “El universo se encogió en madejas fantasmales” curated by Fabiola Iza, the London Biennale with her "MANOS" print and “Under the Canopy” at the Mexican Embassy in London. Rafaela presented a participative hand knitting piece at the Tate Modern Late in dialogue with Maria Bartuszová's retrospective entitled "Social Tissue". Her fanzine “Hecho a mano” was presented at “Printmaking as Collection Action” at a Creativity Lab public installation at the MoMA in New York in 2024. Her work has been mentioned in the Revista Unam on the 866 edition with her "MANOS" print and the use of Mexican Sign Language.