Carolina Muñoz is a Chilean visual artist with a Bachelor’s degree in Arts from the Pontificia Universidad Católica de Chile and a diploma in Photography Aesthetics from the same institution.
Her painting practice arises from a careful observation of both art history and her everyday surroundings. Her work merges historical references with urban scenes through a new figuration approach, revealing a sensibility that connects past and present in vibrant, expressive compositions. In her figures, Muñoz explores questions of gender and sexuality, revealing subconscious societal impulses and anxieties without imposing absolute definitions. Her scenes remain indeterminate yet suggestive tension, inviting reflection on the human condition. The concept of the grotesque is central to her practice, enabling her to push the human figure beyond conventional boundaries.
Muñoz’s influences range from Old Masters—such as Goya, Bosch, Brueghel, and James Ensor—to Surrealism and Robert Crumb’s 1970s underground comics, as well as the works of Philip Guston and Henry Darger. These references nurture a pictorial approach that fuses the every day with the fantastic, creating tension between tradition and experimentation.
She has exhibited her work in prominent cultural institutions in Chile, including Centro Cultural Las Condes (CLAC), the Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (MAC), the Museo de Artes Visuales (MAVI), the Museo de Arte Moderno de Chiloé (MAM), and the Sala de Arte CCU. Additionally, her work has been exhibited in Santiago, Buenos Aires, Hong Kong, New York, Istanbul, and Madrid.
In 2024, she was awarded the CCU Art Scholarship, which enabled her to complete a four-month residency at the New York International Studio & Curatorial Program (ISCP). She has been a finalist in various international calls, such as the Guach Coraty Foundation in Barcelona. She has also achieved notable results in Chile, including second place in the MAVI/Minera Escondida Arte Joven Contemporáneo Prize (2018) and second place in the Artespacio Joven BBVA Prize (2017). In 2023, she participated in the residency program LA EMBAJADA in Madrid, organized by Isabel Croxatto Galería in collaboration with Galería Nueva, while in 2020, she took part in the Proyecto URRA residency in Tigre, Buenos Aires, after receiving a scholarship from the LazoCordillera Foundation in Santiago.
Her work is part of editorial projects such as Sub30 (2014), which showcased 60 young Chilean artists, and Ojo Andino Chile (2015), a Luciano Benetton publication featuring over 170 works by Chilean artists. Her work is part of institutional and private collections in Chile, Argentina, the United States, France, Hong Kong, Turkey, and Singapore.
Carolina Muñoz lives and works in Santiago, Chile.