My chosen medium is site-specifically sourced, hand-processed earth, plant, and insect-based watercolor on sacred – once outlawed – amate paper, a testament to the artistic traditions of the Americas. Recovering the medicinal and aesthetic uses of local plants and pigments enables my work to support healing and awareness building of current issues. The labor-intensive process synthesizes interdisciplinary research – this includes rigorous field study, historical, and ethnobotanical – with the urgency to address the crisis in the United States and US-Mexico Border. The Codex Rodríguez–Mondragón, begun in 2017, maps resistance to the ongoing cycles of violence on communities of color by blending historical and recent events.

Sandy Rodriguez (b. 1975, National City, California; based in Los Angeles) is a Chicana artist whose work delves into cultural knowledge production, history, social memory, and geopolitics. Her paintings draw from colonial-period manuscripts, particularly sixteenth-century Mexican codices, historical and contemporary maps, and scientific research. 

Rodriguez studies and engages with native plants, minerals, and insects, which she transforms into natural pigments and painting materials. This process connects her work intimately with the land and its narratives. 

Her solo exhibitions, including upcoming shows at the Ringling Museum (2025) in Sarasota, Florida; the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens (2025) in San Marino, CA; and the Hispanic Society Museum and Library (2026) in New York City, along with recent presentations at the AD&A Museum, University of California at Santa Barbara (2023-2024), and the Rutgers Center for Women in the Arts and Humanities, New Brunswick, NJ (2023). Rodriguez’s art has also been featured in group exhibitions at institutions such as the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Oregon (2024); the Huntington Library, Art Museum, and Botanical Gardens, San Marino, CA (2024-2021); and The Bancroft Library Gallery, University of California, Berkeley (2023); Museum of Contemporary Art Busan, South Korea (2022); Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2021).

Rodriguez is the recipient of the Latinx Artist Fellowship (2024), the Hermitage Greenfield Prize (2023), and the Jacob Lawrence Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters (2023), Caltech-Huntington Art + Research Residency (2020-21); and Creative Capital Award (2020), City of Los Angeles Master Artist Fellowship (2019) among other honors. 

Her work is in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA; Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, AR; Amon Carter Museum, TX; The Huntington Library, Art Museum and Botanical Garden, CA; Denver Art Museum, CO, Mellon Art Collection, NYC among others.