Rafaela Tellaeche (Mexico City, 1997) is an artist trained at the National School of Painting, Sculpture and Engraving "La Esmeralda" and holds a Master's degree in Contemporary Art Practice from the Royal College of Art (London). Rafaela lives and works in Mexico City, focusing on handmade media such as embroidery, drawing, printmaking, and weaving to emphasize the importance of the hand and the body in the creative—and discursive—process. Embroidery allows her to explore existential threads that connect us to the world through an empirical process. Rafaela distills her existential concerns, approaching them from obsessive, repetitive, and sometimes linguistic platforms, using patience as a form of resistance and shelter.

damn patience

 

Rafaela has participated in several group exhibitions in Mexico and abroad. These include "un diseño sin Design," curated by Cecilia Casabona at La Clínica (Oaxaca), "El universo se encogió en madejas fantasmales", curated by Fabiola Iza at La Nao (CDMX), and at Proyecto Caimán (Guadalajara). In London, she participated in a Tate Modern with her group participation piece "Social Tissue," exhibited at the Mexican Embassy in London with "Under the Canopy," and at the London Biennial in 2021. Tellaeche has had three solo exhibitions, at Casa Lamm, Alcalá Galerie, and Departamento. Her work was part of the creative graphic laboratory at MoMA in 2024, and she has been mentioned in the UNAM magazine with her print "MANOS". Rafaela was selected for the first edition of FAIN in 2019, for the Arte por la Tangente platform during the pandemic, and most recently, she was selected to attend a residency at Pocoapoco in Oaxaca in spring 2026.