María Isabel Rueda was born in the coastal city of Cartagena in the Colombian Caribbean and now lives on the same coast, in the town of Puerto Colombia. This has marked her practice of the last decade when she has explored the specificities of this region. Apart from working as an artist since the late 1990s, she has been an active agent in Colombia’s art scene. She was a member of the now disappeared artist-run space El Bodegón that served as an important meeting point during the second half of the 2010s and participated in other similar initiatives. In the past few years she has co-run the independent project La Usurpadora in Puerto Colombia, hosting artists and curating projects locally and in other venues. She was also part of the artistic team of the 45th Salón Nacional de Artistas and edited the magazine Tropical Goth.