Sofia Aguilar is a Mexican American artist whose practice spans printmaking, painting, and paper weaving, mediums through which she builds a vibrant visual language rooted in heritage, memory, and cultural storytelling. As a second-generation Mexican American, Aguilar grew up surrounded by two older generations whose traditions, imagery,

and narratives infused her understanding of what it means to carry a homeland

within a home. Her work celebrates this duality—honoring ancestral histories while

embracing the lived experience of navigating identity in the United States.

Aguilar’s art is characterized by an expressive use of color and the presence of

spirited characters that draw from Mexica iconography, folklore, and

contemporary Mexican culture. By integrating layered textures, carved lines, and

woven paper forms, she creates scenes that move between the mythical and the

everyday, reflecting the realities, humor, and beauty of bicultural life. These visual

stories offer viewers an intimate look into how cultural memory survives, adapts,

and thrives across generations.

She is currently an MFA candidate at the University of North Carolina at

Greensboro, where she also served as a Graduate Assistant in the Printshop in the

fall of 2024 and spring of 2025, currently a Graduate Assistant at Greensboro

Project Space. Her solo exhibition series, Culturas de Mexico: Prehispanicas y

Actuales, has been shown across several UNCG campus locations (CVPA Dean’s

Office, Health and Human Sciences Office, and the Public Health Education

Collab Workspace) from 2024 through 2025. Officially presenting the exhibition

at Greensboro Project Space in 2023 marked an early cornerstone of her

practice.

Aguilar’s work has been included in multiple group exhibitions across North Carolina and beyond, including Multifaceted Mixed Media & Connected Identities at the Arts Council in Fayetteville; the Virgen de Guadalupe exhibition at the Latino Cultural Center in Dallas, Texas; UNCG’s Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Annual Exhibit; and Greensboro Project Space group shows such as Small Works, Big Works (which she co-curated), Fresh Prints of UNCG, Piece x Peace BIPOC, and the MFA Drawing Marathon showcase. Her work has been featured in publications such as Coraddi Magazine and the Collision Literary Magazine from the University of Pittsburgh.

Aguilar continues to expand her practice through research, storytelling, and experimental material exploration. Her art serves as a vibrant reminder of how culture is carried forward—through craft, through family, and through the powerful act of re-imagining the stories that shape us.