Paloma Shaloma
B. 1964, XALAPA, MEXICO

Paloma Trecka was born in Xalapa, in the state of Veracruz, Mexico, in 1964. 

Her formative years were spent traveling around Europe and Mexico and living in Montreal where she studied Studio Art and Design for the Theater at Concordia University.  Paloma was raised by artists and anthropologists and grew up in an environment filled with music, folklore and art. Her parents were also thespians that passed on a love for performance and pageantry. She chooses to use as an artist name Paloma Shaloma to reflect her humor as well as a deep affection that she has for her family’s Sephardic Jewish roots from Mexico.

Her collage art is influenced by geometric abstract artists such as Kurt Schwitters, Conrad Marca-Relli and Eduoardo Paolozzi. It is from Mexico that she gains the most inspiration for color and from Chicago, the love of the grid, line and texture found in architecture. In the1990s, Paloma discovered her attraction to stop motion animation and the possibilities of setting her art in motion with sounds and music. In her work, the rhythmic repetitions of the grid, and the push- pull effect of abstraction are devices used to both hear and see the art. Today she is an educator and artist based in Chicago.