Monica Curiel (b. 1993, Dallas, Texas)

Monica Curiel is a multidisciplinary visual artist and designer whose practice transforms construction materials, such as spackling paste and plaster, into relief paintings, sculpture, furniture, lighting, and collectible design. Introduced to these materials while working alongside her father on construction sites, Curiel’s work engages with the cultural, familial, and labor histories embedded in materials often handled by immigrant workers but rarely acknowledged. By situating her pieces in spaces connected to her community’s labor, such as cleaning homes, constructing houses, and maintaining lawns, she honors these histories through works that celebrate craft, material mastery, and refined technique.

Drawing on her experience as a first-generation Mexican-American, Curiel explores identity, visibility, and cultural inheritance. Her work investigates memory and the ways personal, familial, and communal histories are inscribed in materials and labor. Through tactile explorations, she shows how industrial construction materials can bring visibility and contribute to contemporary discourse in Mexican-American art and design.

Curiel studied fashion and interior architecture before earning a Bachelor of Fine Arts from the University of Kansas in 2021. Navigating a cancer diagnosis during this period fostered the experimental and expansive nature of her practice, which spans painting, sculpture, and design.

Her work has been acquired by the Denver Art Museum's Architecture and Design permanent collection and recognized internationally, including honors such as Dwell’s Dwell 24 (2024) and Sight Unseen’s American Design Hot List (2023), as well as exhibitions at Milan Design Week (2022) and Artsy (2021).

Photographed by Paul Miller