Guadalupe Maravilla Biography

Combining sculpture, painting, performative acts, and installation, Guadalupe Maravilla (b. 1976) grounds his trans-disciplinary 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; the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Olso, Norway; 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. Maravilla’s work will be featured in Drums Listen to the Heart: Part III, Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, San Francisco, CA in January 2023 and soft and weak like water, the 14th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea in April 2023.

Text courtesy P.P.O.W Gallery

Read More
Guadalupe Maravilla contemporary artist
Guadalupe Maravilla Pricing / Available Works
Enquire

Explore Guadalupe Maravilla's Exhibitions On Now

Representative Artworks

Exhibition view: Guadalupe Maravilla, Sound Botánica, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Sandvika (18 March–7 August 2022). Courtesy Henie Onstad Kunstsenter. Photo: Christian Tunge.
View story
Guadalupe Maravilla, Disease Thrower #13 (2019). Exhibition view: Sound Botánica, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Sandvika (18 March–7 August 2022). Courtesy Henie Onstad Kunstsenter. Photo: Christian Tunge.
View story
Exhibition view: Guadalupe Maravilla, Seven Ancestral Stomachs, P·P·O·W, New York (26 February–26-March 2021). Courtesy the artist and P·P·O·W, New York.
View story
Guadalupe Maravilla, Disease Thrower - Purring Monster with a Mirror on Its Back (2022). Gong, steel, wood, cotton, glue mixture, plastic, loofah, and objects collected from a ritual of retracing the artist's original migration route. 302.3 x 266.7 x 241.3 cm. Courtesy the artist and P·P·O·W, New York. Photo: JSP Art Photography.
View story
Guadalupe Maravilla, Requiem for a border crossing #1 (2016–2020). Ink and paint on dehydrated tortillas, mix media on inkjet print. 50.8 x 76.2 cm. Courtesy the artist and P·P·O·W, New York.
View story
Left to right: Guadalupe Maravilla, Disease Thrower #8; Disease Thrower #9 (both 2019). Exhibition view: 12th Liverpool Biennial, uMoya: The Sacred Return of Lost Things, Tate Liverpool (10 June–17 September 2023). Courtesy Liverpool Biennial. Photo: Mark McNulty.
View story
Guadalupe Maravilla, Embroideries (2019). Exhibition view: Sound Botánica, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Sandvika (18 March–7 August 2022). Courtesy Henie Onstad Kunstsenter. Photo: Christian Tunge.
View story
Left to right: Meiro Koizumi, Theater of Life (2023). Five-channel video installation. Dimensions variable; Guadalupe Maravilla, 'Disease Throwers' series (2019–ongoing). Exhibition view: 14th Gwangju Biennale, soft and weak like water (7 April–9 July 2023). Photo: Stephanie Bailey.
View story
Guadalupe Maravilla, I want to thank these magnificent fruits Retablo (2021). Oil on tin, cotton, glue mixture wood. 129.5 x 57.1 cm. Exhibition view: Seven Ancestral Stomachs, P·P·O·W, New York (26 February–26-March 2021). Courtesy the artist and P·P·O·W, New York.
View story
Guadalupe Maravilla, Disease Thrower #7 (2019) (detail). Exhibition view: Sound Botánica, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Sandvika (18 March–7 August 2022). Courtesy Henie Onstad Kunstsenter. Photo: Christian Tunge.
View story
Guadalupe Maravilla, Tripa Chuca (2022). Wall drawing. Exhibition view: Sound Botánica, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Sandvika (18 March–7 August 2022). Courtesy Henie Onstad Kunstsenter. Photo: Christian Tunge.
View story
Guadalupe Maravilla, I want to thank the cucumbers Retablo (2021) (detail). Oil on tin, cotton, glue mixture wood. 116.8 x 57.1 x 15.2 cm. Courtesy the artist and P·P·O·W, New York.
View story

Guadalupe Maravilla in Ocula Magazine

Explore and Follow Artists Shaping Contemporary Art

Loading...
The art world in focus