Guadalupe Maravilla
Bio
Guadalupe Maravilla is a transdisciplinary visual artist, choreographer, and healer. At the age of eight, Maravilla was part of the first wave of unaccompanied, undocumented children to arrive at the United States border in the 1980s as a result of the Salvadoran Civil War. In 2016, Maravilla became a U.S. citizen and adopted the name Guadalupe Maravilla in solidarity with his undocumented father, who uses Maravilla as his last name. As an acknowledgment to his past, Maravilla grounds his practice in the historical and contemporary contexts belonging to undocumented communities and the cancer community.
Combining pre-colonial Central American ancestry, personal mythology, and collaborative performative acts, Maravilla’s performances, objects, and drawings trace the history of his own displacement and that of others. Culling the entangled fictional and autobiographical genealogies of border crossing accounts, Maravilla nurtures collective narratives of trauma into celebrations of perseverance and humanity. Across all media, Maravilla explores how the systemic abuse of immigrants physically manifests in the body, reflecting on his own battle with cancer, which began in his gut. Maravilla’s large-scale sculptures, titled Disease Throwers, function as headdresses, instruments, and shrines through the incorporation of materials collected from sites across Central America, anatomical models, and sonic instruments such as conch shells and gongs. Described by Maravilla as “healing machines”, these Disease Throwers ultimately serve as symbols of renewal, generating therapeutic, vibrational sound.
Maravilla currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami. Additionally, he has performed and presented his work at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; Queens Museum, New York; The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; El Museo del Barrio, New York; Museum of Art of El Salvador, San Salvador; X Central American Biennial, Costa Rica; New York;, Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, New York; and the Drawing Center, New York, among others.
Awards and fellowships include; The 2021 Joan Mitchell Fellowship, LatinX Fellowship 2021, Lise Wilhelmsen Art award 2021, Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship 2019, Soros Fellowship: Art Migration and Public Space 2019, Map fund 2019, Creative Capital Grant 2016, Franklin Furnace 2018, Joan Mitchell Emerging Artist Grant 2016, Art Matters Grant 2013, Art Matters Fellowship 2017, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship 2018, Dedalus Foundation Grant 2013 and The Robert Mapplethorpe Foundation Award 2003. Residencies include; LMCC Workspace, SOMA, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and Drawing Center Open Sessions.
Maravilla has been featured in the NY Times, Hyperallergic, Brooklyn Rail, the Guardian, Art Forum and many other publications.
Guadalupe Maravilla es artista visual transdisciplinario, coreógrafo, y sanador. A los ocho años, Maravilla fue parte de la primera ola de niños indocumentados que llegaron a la frontera de los Estados Unidos en los 1980 's, en consecuencia de la Guerra Civil de El Salvador. En 2016, Maravilla se hizo ciudadano Estadounidense y adoptó el nombre Guadalupe Maravilla en solidaridad con su padre indocumentado, que usa el nombre Maravilla como apellido. Como reconocimiento a su pasado, Maravilla basa su práctica en los contextos históricos y contemporáneos de la comunidad indocumentada y la comunidad de cáncer.
Combinando los elementos ancestrales pre-coloniales de América Central, mitologías personales y actos de performances colaborativos; con sus objetos y dibujos, Maravilla traza historias de desplazamiento, las propias y las de otros. Por medio de intrincadas narrativas de ficción y genealogías autobiográficas sobre cruce de fronteras; Maravilla transforma historias colectivas de trauma en celebraciones de perseverancia y humanidad. A través de varios medios, Maravilla explora cómo el abuso sistemático a los inmigrantes se manifiesta físicamente en el cuerpo, reflejándose en su propia lucha contra el cáncer, el cual comenzó en sus intestinos. Las esculturas a gran escala de Maravilla, tituladas Disease Throwers (Lanza enfermedad) incorporan materiales recolectados en diversas localidades en Centroamérica; modelos anatómicos e instrumentos sónicos como la caracolas y tambores que funcionan como tocados, instrumentos y santuarios; descritos por Maravilla como “máquinas sanadores”. Estas Disease Throwers (Lanza enfermedad) sirven como símbolo de renovación, generando sonido y vibración terapéutica.
Maravilla en la actualidad vive en Brooklyn, Nueva York. Sus obras están en las colecciones permanentes del Museum of Modern Art, The Guggenheim Museum, el Whitney Museum of American Art, el Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; y el Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami. Adicionalmente, Maravilla ha hecho performances y ha presentado obras en el Whitney Museum of American Art, MoMA, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, Queens Museum, Bronx Museum of the Arts, y muchos más.
Premios y becas incluyen; El 2021 Joan Mitchell Fellowship, LatinX Fellowship 2021, Lise Wilhelmsen Art award 2021, Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship 2019, Soros Fellowship: Art Migration and Public Space 2019, Map fund 2019, Creative Capital Grant 2016, y Franklin Furnace 2018. Residencias incluyen LMCC Workspace, SOMA, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture y Drawing Center Open Sessions.
Maravilla ha salido en artículos en NY Times, Hyperallergic, Brooklyn Rail, the Guardian, Art Forum y varias otras publicaciones.