ARTIST PROFILES

A group exhibition celebrating 7 Ecuadorian queer and women artists at the Embassy of Ecuador in the United Kingdom.

Michel Mendieta

British-Ecuadorian queer artist working across photography and painting.Michel Mendieta (Michelle Mendieta Mean) is a first-generation British-Ecuadorian, queer, and non-binary artist based in East London whose practice spans photography and painting. Through portraiture and figurative imagery, they explore intimacy, identity, desire, and the complexities of the human condition.
Drawing on personal experience and philosophical inquiry, Mendieta’s work examines themes of belonging, visibility, and emotional vulnerability. Recent projects include Hedgehog’s Dilemma, a photographic series investigating the paradox of intimacy and distance.Mendieta holds an MA in Photography from the Royal College of Art and a BA in Fine Art from the University of Oxford. They were awarded the RCA New Photography Prize in 2024.

KIN

KIN is an Ecuadorian (British-born) queer, non-binary multidisciplinary artist whose practice centres on embedding photography through multiple mediums. Working with core themes of migration, memory, and identity whilst drawing on personal and familial archives.‘El Milagro para el migrante’, aims to reflect on the stories of migrant life, contrasting the promise of opportunity with lived experiences shaped by place, community, and socio-economic conditions. Blending traditional techniques such as ‘Repujado’ with contemporary themes, KIN’s work creates allows for political reflections to be centred within each piece of work.Erotica (2026) being their current passion project aims to explore the concept of desire/temptation using their perspective of being a queer person. Equally using cultural references from 70s queer art scene.

Sam Yupa Ocaña

Actor, poet, and movement artist exploring identity and belonging.Sam is an actor, writer, mover and poet. Born and raised in South West London, Sam celebrates his Ecuadorian heritage while building experience in movement and physical storytelling through poetic words.Sam will be performing Where Are You From? at the Private Viewing, a poem he wrote inspired by the prompt of asking where you come from. Through the piece, he proudly embraces the childhood, culture and community that have shaped his identity. The poem is read and performed in English and Spanish, with the use of Quechua phrases.

Nour Khamis

Nour is an Ecuadorian-Palestinian artist and animator born in Quito, Ecuador.Before studying at the Royal College of Art, Nour earned a degree in Illustration from the Rhode Island School of Design, focusing on visual development for animation.
Her RCA graduation film, How To Build A Sand Castle, is a tender, hand-painted metaphor for shedding shame and the journey of queer self-discovery. The film was awarded the Strange Beast & Passion Prize in 2025 and was selected for screening at BFI Southbank as part of the RCA School of Communication graduate showcase.Nour is currently based in London and is seeking opportunities within the creative industries while continuing to develop her animation practice.

Lorea Paucar

British-Ecuadorian artist exploring identity, migration, and belonging across culturesLorea Paucar is a British-Ecuadorian artist based in the UK, where her work explores the fluid architecture of identity and the immigrant experience. Born in Spain and raised in the UK, she creates art that acts as a bridge between "the memory of the Andes and the urban reality of the diaspora."Her work is rooted in being caught between three distinct cultures, and in finding a visual language that can hold them all at once. Drawing on the legacy of Ecuadorian painters such as Guayasamín and Kingman, she works in figurative oil painting, with the human face as her central subject, a site where memory, feeling and inheritance converge.Her Ecuadorian heritage, "written in her features," remains the ultimate inspiration for her creative voice.

Maria Belén Arellano

Belén Arellano, also known as La Marea, is an interdisciplinary artist, researcher, and educator.Her practice combines weaving, painting, sound, and performance as tools for collective creation and critical reflection. She holds a BA in Contemporary Art with a focus on Education from Universidad San Francisco de Quito and an MA in Arts Education from King’s College London. She has participated in residencies including the American Arts Incubator (USA and Ecuador, 2018).Her work explores intersectional feminism, decoloniality, identity, memory, and ancestral knowledge, and has been exhibited in Ecuador and the UK, including at the Barbican Centre and Bermondsey Gallery.

Doris Castillo

Community advocate supporting Indigenous families through storytelling and fundraising.Co-founder of Wawa Suyana (“Children’s Hope”), a grassroots initiative supporting Indigenous children and families in Ecuador through annual fundraising campaigns.Her work reflects a commitment to storytelling, social impact, and strengthening the connection between her present life in the UK and her roots in Ecuador. Born in Ecuador and raised in Spain, her journey across cultures has shaped the way she approaches community, memory, and belonging. Through photography and communication, Doris uses visual storytelling to honour everyday lives, celebrate childhood, and bring visibility to communities that remain close to her heart.

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