Hailey Padilha

Kept, relief print, 2' x 3', 2026.

Printmaker & Artist

Sought, relief print, 2' x 3', 2026.

Biography

Hailey Padilha is a printmaker pursuing a BFA with Teaching Certification and a minor in Nonprofit Management at Midwestern State University. Her work uses traditional and experimental printmaking processes to explore social justice and the ways history is recorded, remembered, and repeated. Through layering imagery and material experimentation, she examines patterns of power, absence, and collective memory.Padilha’s work has been exhibited in juried and group exhibitions across the United States and internationally, with work included in permanent collections through printmaking organizations. She is a 2026 Mary Bowman Arts in Activism Award recipient, as well as multiple awards in printmaking from Midwestern State University. She is also an organizer of print exchanges, and has been selected as a panel organizer and moderator for SGCI Confluence 2027, where she will lead a discussion on art education, censorship, and critical thought. Alongside her studio practice, Padilha is involved in art education, community programming, and printmaking outreach. Her practice is grounded in the belief that art can encourage critical reflection and empathy.

Teaching

I teach because I believe education has the power to shape how students see themselves and the world around them. As an art educator, my goal is not only to teach technical skills, but to help students build confidence, curiosity, and creative problem-solving abilities that extend far beyond the art room.My objective as an educator is to create a classroom where students feel safe to explore, question, and express their perspectives. I aim to cultivate resilience, independence, and empathy through creative practice. I want my students to leave my classroom not only with stronger artistic skills, but with a deeper belief in their own ability to generate ideas and contribute meaningfully to their communities.

Senior Capstone Exhibition

"History on Hold" examines how power shapes collective memory by determining which histories are taught, minimized, or erased. Focusing on underrepresented events in recent American history, the work highlights stories that continue to impact communities despite their absence from dominant narratives. By centering recorded testimony, the installation challenges the idea of history as neutral and asks who benefits when certain stories are left unheard. Through screenprints, relief-printed fabrics, cyanotypes, and interactive telephones, viewers are invited to actively engage.Rooted in my experiences growing up around the diverse communities of the DFW area, this project reflects an ongoing interest in documenting overlooked histories and questioning how “common knowledge” is shaped. By pairing material processes tied to memory with the firsthand accounts being played through the telephones, the work makes history feel immediate and personal. Moving forward, I aim to continue exploring how objects, archives, and community voices can work together to resist erasure and expand our understanding of the past.

Install and reception pictures

Recent Works

Revision: The Vanishing Record

In this series I explore different accounts and events in U.S. history that I feel don’t get the level of attention or awareness that they deserve. Much of this lack of awareness can be attributed to an intentional rewriting or obstruction of education around the subjects.
These prints took place across two semesters, where media and content exploration was my primary focus.

Older Work

Early BFA work where I explored different media and topics of focus.

This series was done in my drawing II class and a key component of the class was to have them all work together as a series. Inspired by growing up listening to bossa nova with my family, I learned of the music genre’s political and cultural significance during Brazil’s time under dictatorship. Something about the idea of artists making work to criticize a fascist regime during a time where anything that wasn’t promoting an idealized version of Brazil was censored inspired me to make my own critiques sociopolitical policies of the current (under President Bolsonaro) Brazilian administration. These critiques utilized images and objects traditionally associated with Brazilian culture, while implementing my own critiques in subtle ways, like the Bossa Nova artists did in their own work.

Drawing I Projects

Other Media

Work from my painting class. The theme for both of my studio classes dealt with the intentional absence and removal of history and literature in the U.S. In painting I explored books on the banned book list, literature that I find to be important when considering the current social and political climate in the states, and other current events.

Prints: 2024 - 2025

We Can Feed The Poor, screenprint, varied edition, 12” x 12” / 11" x 11". 2026.