Isabel Avila

Isabel Avila (b. 1979, Boyle Heights) is a Pasadena-based artist working primarily in color film photography to document cultural histories. Her work explores the intersection of Native and Chicano heritage in Southern California, offering a subjective perspective that challenges mainstream historical narratives. Through her photographs, Avila sheds light on overlooked histories, engaging with lived experiences to create a counter-narrative to dominant cultural perceptions.

Avila holds an MFA in Studio Art with an emphasis in Photography from California State University, Long Beach, and a BFA in Photography and Imaging from Art Center College of Design. Her work has been exhibited in numerous prestigious institutions, including a solo exhibition, Parallel Worlds, at the Vincent Price Art Museum, with additional works featured in The New World at the Wignall Museum of Contemporary Art and The One & the Many: Perspectives on Self & Other in Art & Human Rights Practices at the University of Dayton. Her solo exhibition, Reflections of Land and Lineage, debuted at Beyond Baroque, and she was featured in A Universal History of Infamy at LACMA’s Charles White Gallery as part of Pacific Standard Time.
A photograph from Avila’s Native America series is part of the permanent collection at the Gene Autry Museum of the American West, and she completed a series of eight portraits of Native Americans for Becoming LA, a permanent exhibit at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles. In addition to her individual work, Avila collaborated with artist Kim Schoenstadt on the Now Be Here performance, capturing a historic photograph of 733 contemporary women artists—including Mary Kelly, Alison and Betye Saar, and Barbara T. Smith—in the courtyard of Hauser & Wirth.

Beyond her artistic practice, Avila has been a teaching artist-in-residence at Light Bringer Project and a lecturer in Photography at CSULB. She also works as a freelance photographer, with clients including Capital & Main, an award-winning online publication, and Dyson & Womack, a Los Angeles-based public art firm.

Insta: @isabelavila.photo