Starting from a compilation of real or invented stories and memories, Ximena paints sensitive and energetic scenes in which the characters look defiantly into the eyes of the viewer. Some characters cry, others enjoy life fearlessly; and most of them fight for the protagonist role that has historically been denied to them. In an exercise as self-exploratory as it is pictorial, Ximena mixes self-fiction, visceral sincerity and the exaggerated dramaturgy of telenovelas to capture scenes on the canvas. She chooses vibrant colors that reaffirm her own existence, colors reminiscent of the chaos, contrasts and the innocence with which we sometimes encounter life.
With a dramatic and humorous language, Ximena raises simple and honest questions that try to humanize social mistakes and sorrows. Her figurative but non-realistic way of painting raises questions about inequalities, intercultural challenges and subjective wellbeing in a vulnerable and serious way. She attempts to reconcile herself in a somewhat shameless way with class institutions and power relations permeated by colonialism and its most profound wounds. Depicting scenes that transcend the Latin American space, Ximena addresses universal themes such as conservative families, colonial trauma and intersectional feminism; in this, she presents imperfect and anthropomorphic characters that tell their own micropolitical stories. Lived or yet to be lived, invented or dreamed. Hard, weird and funny.