Carolina Barrios Vilchis

Born and based in Mexico City, Carolina Barrios Vilchis explores the unconscious: the desires, dreams, affections, and fantasies that shape us beneath the surface. Her work leaves room for the viewer’s imagination. She doesn’t believe every detail needs an explanation; sometimes a question is more interesting than an answer.

Frames are central to Carolina’s practice. She sees them as records that move through time, gathering stories from the homes and hands they pass through. When she acquires one, she welcomes it, asks permission to work on it, and promises to leave it better than she found it. It’s a fitting ritual for an artist fascinated by the intimacy people build with objects and with one another.

Carolina taught herself to make a living from art. Before that, she spent a summer selling mojitos on a beach in Oaxaca, despite being too shy to approach anyone. She goes by Caracol, reads people remarkably well without a word being spoken, and has a soft spot for the strangest reality shows.

Works at Call Me Lola

Inner Universe as a Map imagines the unconscious as a place to explore and a possible guide. Desire, fantasy, dreams, and affection inhabit this inner world, while repression draws a boundary between what feels permissible and what brings guilt. The work considers that tension as part of being human.

In Visual Pleasure, Carolina turns to the natural world, abstracting botanical forms and lines into a visual language that invites close looking. Neither work asks for a single interpretation. Together, they offer space for viewers to follow their own associations and discover what the images bring to mind.

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