Patricia Vázquez Gómez

Mexican-American, b. 1973, Mexico City, lives and works in Portland, OR and Mexico City

Patricia Vázquez Gómez: The Mayan Works Chapter 2

Aug 27 - Dec 5

Portland State University Schnitzer School of Art

2000 SW 5th Ave, Portland, OR 97201

Tues, Weds, Fri: 12:00 - 5:00 PM; Thurs: 2:00-7:00 PM

About the Project

Patricia Vázquez Gómez (Portland) is an artist and educator exploring the social functions of art through printmaking, video, and community-based projects. For the 2026 C45 Triennial, she debuts a multi-channel sound installation in the gallery at PSU’s Schnitzer School of Art that expands on her long-term collaboration with Mayan youth in Northeast Portland. The work centers on their evolving relationship with maayat’aan, an Indigenous language from Yucatán, Mexico, and musicians’ responses to its special vocal intonation. Accompanied by an artist’s book modeled on a Mayan codex and new large-scale drawings, the project investigates the vital role of art in preserving cultural knowledge.

Artist Bio

Patricia Vázquez Gómez (she/her) lives and works on both sides of the US/Mexico border. Her interdisciplinary creative research—which manifests in paintings, prints, books, sound, video, and public events—deeply investigates the intersections between aesthetics, ethics, and politics. The methodologies of her practice are profoundly informed by her lived experiences working directly within immigrant rights and other social justice movements.

Vázquez Gómez has exhibited her work regionally at the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA), Oregon Contemporary, and the Portland Art Museum. Nationally, her art has been shown at the Reece Museum (TN) and Art League Houston (TX), as well as within apartment buildings, community organizations, public schools, and unconventional public spaces. Her practice has received institutional support from the Ford Foundation, the Oregon Community Foundation, and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Deeply embedded in the local arts ecosystem, she teaches at both the undergraduate and graduate levels at Portland State University.