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A photo of artist Beatriz Whitehill. She stands in front of her artwork with a neutral expression.

Beatriz Whitehill

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I am a Puerto Rican-American multidisciplinary artist who makes art for diasporic communities. My work speaks to the resilience and beauty of our multilayered heritage through paintings, installations and animations that reside within the visual language of magical realism and mirror a unique cultural experience. My figurative work is decorated with hidden imagery that encourages the viewer to take a longer look. Puerto Rican symbolism like vejigante, masked monsters, help me understand the tensions around dual-identities. My artwork reflects this dialogue, expanding upon the ideas of decolonization, legacy, and the redefinition of diasporic identities to combat cultural erasure.

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Beatriz Whitehill is a Puerto Rican-American multidisciplinary artist. She studied painting with a focus on Latin American art at Massachusetts College of Art and Design. Her work addresses diasporic communities through a visual representation of the resilience and endurance of culture. Her paintings are full of hidden imagery, worlds within everyday objects. The vibrancy of the paint colors she uses are taken from lush Caribbean landscapes. Her practice also includes elements of design, three dimensional sculpture, and stop motion animation created from her paintings and illustrations. Her work witnesses the resilience of the human spirit and the endurance of culture.

Featured Artwork

A painting of half a woman's face as a party goes on over her shoulder. Her dark hair is long and contains thorns that poke through. Her gold hoop earring sparkles. Reflections of people dancing and kissing appear on her face. She looks straight at the viewer, calm.
Beatriz Whitehill. My Fear is Love, That Hearts Will Change, 2024. Oil on canvas, 36 x 24 inches. Image courtesy of Alex Arlos.
"This is a painting of a man walking with his shadow depicting historical imagery of the colonization of Latin America, specifically Puerto Rico, and the impact of colonial action on present day traumas such as climate change, political unrest, and violence." - Beatriz Whitehill. Blue shadows against a yellow wall are painted to contain vivid images of faces, guns, ships, leaves and animals.
Beatriz Whitehill. Shadows That Speak to Us, 2023. Oil on canvas, 30 x 40 inches. Photographic documentation by Alex Arlos.
"An impression of a shared landscape engraved upon the table grounds the people at the table together." - Beatriz Whitehill. People clink green drinking glasses that contain the faces of people around them at a large orange table that swirls with texture.
Beatriz Whitehill. A lie has speed but the truth has endurance, 2022. Oil on canvas, 38 x 33 inches. Image courtesy of Alex Arlos.