Stephanie Godoy

Los Angeles | www.stephaniegodoy.com | @stephaniegodoyart

Stephanie Godoy (b. 1992, El Monte, CA) is based in East Los Angeles. She became a first generation college graduate in 2018 by earning her Bachelor’s at California State University Los Angeles. Her vibrant, figurative oil paintings have been exhibited at The Los Angeles Art Show, Self-Help Graphics, La Plaza De La Raza, and most recently at SoLA Contemporary.

Stephanie’s protest posters exhibited at SoLA Contemporary honoring Breonna Taylor, Dominique Fells, and Iyanna Dior have been acquired in association with LA County Dept. of Arts & Culture and donated to California African American Museum. Godoy also donated work to auction at the Getty during 2019 in support of their educational programming. Her paintings have been spotted at music festivals such as Desert Daze, Viva! Pomona, and Echo Park Rising.

Godoy creates her paintings with the intention of shaping visual culture. Images demonstrate what societies value across the globe. People’s reaction of what is beautiful and what is not is informed by the civilization they live in. Michael Baxandall has named this phenomena as “The Period Eye”. The Period Eye recognizes that vision itself is contextual because society shapes a viewer’s perspective and response to any given image. Baxandall states that vision is not simply a mechanical process but a complex, cognitive process that has to be learned.

Stephanie's paintings expand on what society can consider beautiful and worthy. She carefully picks her subjects to elevate those who act on resilience. Her subjects are often people of color who have had to creatively navigate a system that was not built in their favor. Whether Stephanie depicts her subjects through their physical body, or through a collection of curated symbols, she always keeps their ancestral roots and natal charts in mind. Stephanie uses bold strokes as a testament to her subjects’ courageous ways of life. Through Stephanie’s work, one can see how she pushes visual culture to acknowledge and embrace those who have been historically marginalized.