British painter Joy Laville attended art school in the south of England before joining the Observer Corps during World War II. From the 1940’s, Laville lived in Canada and then Mexico where she attended the Instituto Allende. She experimented with Cubism and Abstract Expressionism before establishing her own painting style. Laville was a candidate for the National Prize for Arts and Sciences in Mexico in 2011. She was awarded the Bellas Artes Medal for her life’s work in 2012.