On Matriarchal Lineage and Memory – A Walkthrough of Julia Isídrez: Mud is Everything with Sophia Mena

Sophia Mena is leading a guided walkthrough of Julia Isídrez: Mud is Everything at Nottingham Contemporary on Wednesday 16 December, from 1pm to 2pm. The tour is part of the exhibition, which runs from 9 October 2026 to 10 January 2027, and it's free to attend.

Isídrez, born in Paraguay in 1967, works with local clay and Guaraní techniques passed down through her family. She learned the craft from her mother, Juana Marta Rodas, who in turn learned from her own mother — a lineage of Guaraní ceramic knowledge handed down across generations. A physical symbol of that transmission is the tacuara, a shaping tool passed from hand to hand. Isídrez takes those traditional methods and turns them toward the fantastical: hybrid, chimaera-like figures and multi-headed spherical amphibians that spring from her imagination and echo popular traditions and folklore. Mud is Everything is her first international institutional solo exhibition, curated by Salma Tuqan and Niall Ó Faircheallaigh, and it's accompanied by a publication supported by Fundación Itaú.

Sophia Mena, who runs the walkthrough, is the founder of Somos The Podcast, the first UK podcast to archive the lives of Latino artists and creatives globally. She'll be bringing her own stories of jewellers, entrepreneurs and storytellers across generations to converse with Isídrez's chimeric ceramics, so the tour is as much about the people and the lineages behind the work as it is about the pieces themselves.

It's a free entry, and the walkthrough starts at 1pm in Gallery 1 — you'll need to meet at Reception first. Nottingham Contemporary is at NG1 2GB, and the exhibition stays open until 10 January, so if you can't make the tour, you've still got plenty of time to see the work on your own.