Renata Petersen is a Mexican visual artist whose work explores the intersection of mythology, religion, popular culture, and contemporary social life through a lens of sharp wit and dark humor. Working across drawing, ceramics, glass, and installation, she creates narratives that blur the boundaries between the sacred and the absurd, inviting viewers to question the stories and symbols that shape our collective imagination.
Drawing inspiration from comics, satire, folklore, and artists such as Mike Kelley, Sarah Lucas, Raymond Pettibon, and Kim Gordon, Petersen's practice examines themes including cults, urban legends, gender roles, sexuality, and the shifting nature of taste. Her work embraces contradiction—at once playful and unsettling, humorous and deeply reflective.
Based in Guadalajara, Mexico, Petersen holds a degree in Visual Arts from La Esmeralda (INBAL) in Mexico City. Her work has been exhibited internationally at institutions including the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, Museo Tamayo, Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Dallas Contemporary, and Casa de México in Madrid, and is part of several important public and private collections.
During her residency at Hotel El Ganzo, Renata Petersen transformed Room 301 into an immersive site-specific installation through a series of hand-drawn ink illustrations depicting donkeys that quietly inhabit unexpected corners of the space. Rather than presenting a single artwork, the room invites guests to discover these characters gradually, turning the act of inhabiting the room into part of the artistic experience.
Inspired by The Golden Ass—the second-century Roman novel by Apuleius—and by the enduring symbolism of the donkey throughout literature, religion, and folklore, Petersen reimagined the animal as a figure of humility, resilience, wisdom, and quiet rebellion. Her reflections also found an unexpected connection in Baja California Sur, where encountering wild donkeys roaming freely through the desert became both a poetic and deeply symbolic image.
By weaving together classical mythology, Mexican cultural references, and the landscape surrounding El Ganzo, the installation transforms Room 301 into a place where stories unfold through observation. As guests move through the space, the donkeys become silent companions—playful reminders that freedom, humility, and curiosity often reveal themselves in the most unexpected places.
