Joy Laville was an English/Mexican artist whose art career began in Mexico when she came to the country to take art classes in San Miguel de Allende. In 1983, her work shifted to focus on the loss of her husband, directly or indirectly through themes of finality, eternity, and existential wondering. In her Tamarind prints, Laville depicts figures in quiet, even lonely, domestic settings and curious exterior scenes.

Laville worked zealously during her lifetime, exhibiting her work in Mexico and abroad including the Palacio de Bellas Artes and the Museo de Arte Moderno. In 2012, she received the Bellas Artes Medal for her life’s work. A retrospective exhibition in 2004 at the Museo de Arte Moderno, curated by Santiago Espinosa de los Monteros, brought together works from more than four decades and represented Joy Laville’s unique and continuing contribution to contemporary Mexican art.