Photos by Katelyn Grace Sinclair

Paloma Valencia is a printmaker and painter based in Chicago, Illinois. She was born in Miami and graduated from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2019, with a BFA in Studio Art. Drawing inspiration from the industrial pockets of Miami and Chicago, her practice is an on-going and flawed exploration of the modern American identity through commercial architecture and the contemporary urban environment. Her subject matter stems from her collection of compulsive street photographs, featuring laundromats; diners; ice cream shacks; gas stations; and dive bars. Her primary focus is currently relief printmaking, but her prints are informed by painting and screen-printing techniques. Her prior professional experience as an graphic designer, art director, and copywriter for an architectural rendering firm influences her aesthetic and conceptual approaches to creating her work.