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Guadalupe Maravilla

Guadalupe Maravilla, 2023
Photo by Makenzie Goodman

Combining sculpture, painting, performative acts, and installation, Guadalupe Maravilla (b. 1976) grounds his transdisciplinary practice in activism and healing. Engaging a wide variety of visual cultures, Maravilla’s work is autobiographical, referencing his unaccompanied, undocumented migration to the United States due to the Salvadoran Civil War. Across all media, Maravilla explores how the systemic abuse of immigrants physically manifests in the body, reflecting on his own battle with cancer. Maravilla received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts and his MFA from Hunter College in New York. His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA; Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX; and the Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY, among others. He has received numerous awards and fellowships including a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, 2019; Soros Fellowship: Art Migration and Public Space, 2019; MAP Fund Grant, 2019; Franklin Furnace Fund, 2018; Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship, 2018; Art Matters Fellowship, 2017; Creative Capital Grant, 2016; Joan Mitchell Emerging Artist Grant, 2016; and The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation Award 2003. He has presented solo exhibitions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY; Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO; Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo, Norway; Socrates Sculpture Park, New York, NY; P·P·O·W, New York, NY; and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL, among others. His work has been included in recent group exhibitions such as uMoya: The Sacred Return of Lost Things, Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, UK; soft and weak like water, 14th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju Metropolitan City, South Korea; Drum Listens to Heart, Part III, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA; Crip Time, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany; and Stories of Resistance, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, St. Louis, MO, among others. Guadalupe Maravilla: Mariposa Relámpago, a solo exhibition featuring a newly commissioned immersive installation at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston’s Watershed, was on view from May 25 - September 4, 2023. In a multi-year tour, Mariposa Relámpago will travel to venues across Texas beginning with Ballroom Marfa, November 3, 2023 - March 30, 2024; the Contemporary Austin, opening April 4, 2024; and The Blaffer Museum of Art opening November 2024. Maravilla’s second solo exhibition at P·P·O·W, Si no sanas hoy, sanarás mañana, will be on view March 1 - April 6, 2024.

 

Guadalupe Maravilla

b. 1976, El Salvador
Lives and works in Brooklyn, NY

Education

2013    
M.F.A. Hunter College, New York, NY

2003    
B.F.A. School of Visual Arts, New York, NY

Solo Exhibitions

2024
Guadalupe Maravilla: Mariposa Relámpago, The Contemporary, Austin, TX (forthcoming)
Guadalupe Maravilla, Si no sanas hoy, sanarás mañana, P·P·O·W, New York, NY 
Armonía de la Esfera, Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 

2023
Guadalupe Maravilla: Mariposa Relámpago, Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, TX 
La Alegría del Fuego, mor charpentier, Paris, France 
Guadalupe Maravilla: Mariposa Relámpago, ICA Watershed, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, MA 

2022   
Guadalupe Maravilla: Purring Monsters with Mirrors on Their Backs, Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO 
Guadalupe Maravilla: Tierra Blanca Joven, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY  
Sound Botánica, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo, Norway

2021    
Luz y fuerza, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Planeta Abuelx, Socrates Sculpture Park, New York, NY
Seven Ancestral Stomachs, P·P·O·W, New York, NY

2019    
Provocations, ICA, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond, VA
Portals, ICA Miami, Miami, FL
Saga, Jack Barrett, New York, NY

2015    
XOLO YAWNING, Y GALLERY, New York, NY

2011    
Temple of the Bearded Man, DCKT Contemporary, New York, NY

Select Group Exhibitions

2024
For Dear Life: Art, Medicine, and Disability, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, San Diego, CA (forthcoming)
Decolonising Malta: Polyphony Is Us, Malta Biennale, Valletta, Malta
Wordplay, ICA Boston, Boston, MA 
What Matters: A Proposition in Eight Rooms, San Francisco MoMA, San Francisco, CA
GUT_BRAIN 1: Destructive Desires and Other Destinies of Excess, Part Two, Blackwood Gallery, University of Toronto Mississauga, Mississauga, Canada

2023
Noor Riyadh Festival, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia
12th Göteborg International Biennial for Contemporary Art: forms of the surrounding futures, Gothenburg, Sweden
35th Bienal De São Paulo: choreographies of the impossible, São Paulo, Brazil
Songs for Ritual and Remembrance, Arthur Ross Gallery, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA 
uMoya: The Sacred Return of Lost Things, Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool, UK 
soft and weak like water, 14th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju Metropolitan City, South Korea
Boil, Toil & Trouble, curated by Zoe Lubov and Abby Pucker, Art in Common, Los Angeles, CA
Drum Listens to Heart, Part III, CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Art, San Francisco, CA  

2022    
Introverse: Allegory Today, 80 Washington Square East, NYU Steinhardt, New York, NY
Ceremony (Burial of an Undead World), Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin, Germany 
Contemporary Ex-Votos: Devotion Beyond Medium, curated by Emmanuel Ortega, University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM; Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art at UNLV, Las Vegas, NV; Gallery 400, University of Illinois, Chicago, Chicago, IL
Fire Figure Fantasy: Selections from ICA Miami's Collection, ICA Miami, Miami, FL
Salutary Sculpture, Laumeier Sculpture Park, Saint Louis, MO 
Native America: In Translation, curated by Wendy Red Star, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ; Milwaukee Art Museum, Milwaukee, WI; Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX; USF Contemporary Art Museum, Tampa, FL 

2021    
Sin Fronteras / No Borders, Espacio Mínimo, Madrid, Spain
Crip Time, Museum für Moderne Kunst, Frankfurt, Germany
Plus One, Luhring Augustine, New York, NY
Absence-Presence, ANOTHER SPACE, New York, NY
Cruising the Horizon, The Latinx Project, NYU, New York, NY
Stories of Resistance, Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis, St. Louis, MO

2020    
States of Mind, Moody Center for the Arts, Rice University, Houston, TX
Borders of Freedom, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, CA
100 Drawings from Now, The Drawing Center, New York, NY
Displaced: Contemporary Artists Confront the Refugee Crisis, Site Santa Fe, NM
We Fight to Build a Free World, The Jewish Museum, New York, NY
Noplace, P·P·O·W, New York, NY
Hell is a Place in Earth. Heaven is a Place in Your Head, P.P.O.W, New York, NY (online)
All of Them Witches, Jeffrey Deitch, Los Angeles, CA

2019    
Borders of Freedom, Locust Projects, Miami, FL
What’s Love Got to Do with It?, The Drawing Center, New York, NY
AXxoN N., Essex Flowers, New York, NY
Room for Failure, Piero Atchugarry Gallery, Garzón, Uruguay
Pacha, Llaqta, Wasichay: Indigenous Space, Modern Architecture, New Art, The Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

2018    
In the rabbit hole, Mother Gallery, New York, NY
Running Towards the Sun, Jack Barrett, New York, NY
Mundos Alternos: Art and Science, California Museum of Photography, Riverside, CA
The Neighbors: Love Thy Neighbor, Bronx Museum, New York, NY

2017    
UPROOT, Smack Mellon, Brooklyn, NY
Exquisite Corpse: Moving Image in Latin Art, Mana Contemporary, Jersey City, NJ
First We Take Manhattan, Ethan Cohen, New York, NY

2016    
10, an exhibition celebrating MATRE Contemporary’s 10 year anniversary, Museo de Arte de El Salvador (MARTE), San Salvador, El Salvador

2014    
El Museo’s Bienal: The (S) Files 2011, El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY

2011    
Hair Tactics, Jersey City Museum, Jersey City, NJ

Select Performances

2021    
Summer Solstice Festival with Healing Sound Bath, Socrates Sculpture Park, New York, NY

2019    
Mundos Alternos: Art and Science Fiction in the Americas, Queens Museum, New York, NY

2018    
OG of the Undocumented Children, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY

2017    
BOOM! BOOM! WHAMMM SWOOSH!, Texas State Capitol
Prophets, thieves, and lovers: A Performance by Guadalupe Maravilla, Rubin Foundation, New York, NY
Between Illegality and Personhood, The New Museum, New York, NY

2014    
The Magus Performance, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, NY

2011    
Crossing Performance, United States-Mexico Border
Temple of the Bearded Man, DCKT Contemporary, New York, NY
Performa 11, The Dating Game, El Museo Del Barrio, New York, NY

2010    
Performances, DCKT Contemporary, New York, NY

Select Public Collections

Blanton Museum of Art, Austin, TX 
Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Cantor Arts Center at Stanford University, Stanford, CA
Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Olso, Norway 
Hirshhorn Museum, Washington, DC
Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL 
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at Portland State University, Portland, OR 
Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY 
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain 
New Mexico State University Art Museum, Las Cruces, NM 
Pérez Art Museum Miami, Miami, FL
Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ 
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, CA
Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY 
University of New Mexico Art Museum, Albuquerque, NM 
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY 
Williams College Museum of Art, Williamstown, MA 

Bibliography

2023
Gilman, Claire, and Roger Malbert. “Guadalupe Maravilla.” Drawing in the Present Tense, Thames & Hudson, pp. 62-63.

2022
"Guadalupe Maravilla: Sound Botánica,” Høvikodden, Norway. Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, 2022.
Franke, Anselm, Elisa Giuliano, et al., editors. Ceremony (Burial of an Undead World), 1st ed., Spector Books, Leipzig, 2022, pp. 378-380.

2021    
ICA Miami. “Guadalupe Maravilla: Portals,” Miami, FL: Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, 2021.

2020    
Ahlbeg, Joanna. “100 Drawings from Now,” Drawing Papers 143.

Awards and Fellowships

Joan Mitchell Foundation Inaugural Fellow
Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award
Andrew W. Mellon Foundation & Ford Foundation Latinx Artist Fellowship
Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship
Creative Capital Grant
The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation Award

Selected Works

Selected Works Thumbnails
Guadalupe Maravilla, Disease Thrower #15, 2021

Guadalupe Maravilla
Disease Thrower #15
, 2021
gong, steel, wood, cotton, glue mixture, plastic, loofah, and objects collected from a ritual of retracing the artist's original migration route
98 x 96 x 52 ins.
248.9 x 243.8 x 132.1 cm

Guadalupe Maravilla, Migratory Birds Riding the Celestial Serpent (Aves migratorias montando la serpiente celestial), 2021

Guadalupe Maravilla
Migratory Birds Riding the Celestial Serpent (Aves migratorias montando la serpiente celestial), 2021
Mixed media sculpture with maguey leaves, glue mixture and objects collected from a ritual of retracing the artist's original migration route
131 x 303 x 13 1/2 ins.
332.7 x 769.6 x 34.3 cm

Guadalupe Maravilla, Disease Thrower #18, 2021

Guadalupe Maravilla
Disease Thrower #18, 2021
gong, steel, wood, cotton, glue mixture, plastic, loofah, and objects collected from a ritual of retracing the artist's original migration route
96 x 50 x 66 ins.
243.8 x 127 x 167.6 cm

Guadalupe Maravilla, My health has continued to deteriorate Retablo, 2021

Guadalupe Maravilla
My health has continued to deteriorate Retablo, 2021
oil on tin, cotton, glue mixture, wood and found bronze crab
76 1/2 x 69 x 9 ins.
194.3 x 175.3 x 22.9 cm

Guadalupe Maravilla, Tripa Chuca 1, 2020

Guadalupe Maravilla
Tripa Chuca 1, 2020
Ink and paint on dehydrated tortillas, and mixed media on inkjet print
20 x 30 ins.
50.8 x 76.2 cm

Guadalupe Maravilla, Disease Thrower #9, 2019

Guadalupe Maravilla
Disease Thrower #9, 2019
gong, steel, wood, cotton, glue mixture, plastic, loofah, and objects collected from a ritual of retracing the artist's original migration route
144 x 56 x 63 ins.
365.8 x 142.2 x 160 cm

Guadalupe Maravilla, Disease Thrower #15, 2021

Guadalupe Maravilla
Disease Thrower #15
, 2021
gong, steel, wood, cotton, glue mixture, plastic, loofah, and objects collected from a ritual of retracing the artist's original migration route
98 x 96 x 52 ins.
248.9 x 243.8 x 132.1 cm

Guadalupe Maravilla, Migratory Birds Riding the Celestial Serpent (Aves migratorias montando la serpiente celestial), 2021

Guadalupe Maravilla
Migratory Birds Riding the Celestial Serpent (Aves migratorias montando la serpiente celestial), 2021
Mixed media sculpture with maguey leaves, glue mixture and objects collected from a ritual of retracing the artist's original migration route
131 x 303 x 13 1/2 ins.
332.7 x 769.6 x 34.3 cm

Guadalupe Maravilla, Disease Thrower #18, 2021

Guadalupe Maravilla
Disease Thrower #18, 2021
gong, steel, wood, cotton, glue mixture, plastic, loofah, and objects collected from a ritual of retracing the artist's original migration route
96 x 50 x 66 ins.
243.8 x 127 x 167.6 cm

Guadalupe Maravilla, My health has continued to deteriorate Retablo, 2021

Guadalupe Maravilla
My health has continued to deteriorate Retablo, 2021
oil on tin, cotton, glue mixture, wood and found bronze crab
76 1/2 x 69 x 9 ins.
194.3 x 175.3 x 22.9 cm

Guadalupe Maravilla, Tripa Chuca 1, 2020

Guadalupe Maravilla
Tripa Chuca 1, 2020
Ink and paint on dehydrated tortillas, and mixed media on inkjet print
20 x 30 ins.
50.8 x 76.2 cm

Guadalupe Maravilla, Disease Thrower #9, 2019

Guadalupe Maravilla
Disease Thrower #9, 2019
gong, steel, wood, cotton, glue mixture, plastic, loofah, and objects collected from a ritual of retracing the artist's original migration route
144 x 56 x 63 ins.
365.8 x 142.2 x 160 cm

Videos

Art21's New York Close Up, Guadalupe Maravilla & the Sound of Healing, 2021