Fatima Ronquillo

Fatima Ronquillo was born in Pampanga, the Philippines, in 1976 and emigrated to the United States as a child, her family settling in San Antonio, Texas; she now lives and works in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Largely self-taught, she began exhibiting at fifteen and has become one of the most collected figurative painters of her generation. Ronquillo paints in the manner of the European old masters - luminous glazes over careful impasto - while imbuing her work with a playful magic realism rooted in folk and colonial Latin American traditions. Her intimate canvases depict mysterious, often costumed personages drawn from literature, theatre, and opera, set against pastoral landscapes and charged with quiet drama and wit. Her work is widely exhibited and collected in the United States and internationally. As a sought-after contemporary artist, Ronquillo's paintings bring strong prices at auction, making her a notable name for collectors of contemporary figurative and magic-realist art.