Studio stories · Mexico City

Inside Anastasia Shi’s Mexico City Studio: Painting Emotion Through Fragmented Figuration

Anastasia Shi is an international contemporary artist based in Mexico. From her Mexico City studio, she works across painting, drawing, ceramics, objects and performance, exploring how emotion and memory take material form.

A body sensed through fragments

Faces, bodies and organic shapes recur across Shi’s practice. They do not always settle into complete figures. Abstraction and symbolism allow a face or gesture to carry an emotional presence while remaining open to interpretation. Fragmentation becomes a way to hold contradictory experiences together: vulnerability and resilience, recognition and uncertainty.

The studio practice moves between materials rather than following a single fixed format. Paint, paper, clay and found materials offer different kinds of surface, pressure and touch. The choice of medium changes how an idea is encountered: as a mark, a layered composition, an object or an action.

Three ways into the work

In Faces of Isolation (2020), individual faces accumulate into a large work on paper. Not Overwhelmed at All (2022) uses mixed-media collage on board to explore emotional saturation through layers and fragments. Pursuit of the Loudest Truth (2025) approaches intuition and interference through a fragment-based work on paper.

These works offer distinct entry points into a practice concerned with embodiment, identity and transformation. Seeing them together reveals how recurring questions can move across scale, material and composition.

Encountering the work in Mexico City

Private studio viewings in Mexico City are available by appointment. Collectors and curators can contact the studio for current availability, additional images or a remote video viewing. Each artwork record provides its year, medium and dimensions so that a conversation can begin with a specific work.