Cecilia Vicuña
Cecilia Vicuña (b. 1948 in Santiago, Chile; lives and works in New York and Santiago) integrates practices of poetry, performance, Conceptualism, and textile craft in response to pressing concerns of the modern world, including ecological destruction, human rights, and cultural homogenization. Born and raised in Santiago, she was exiled during the early 1970s after the violent military coup against President Salvador Allende. This sense of impermanence, and a desire to preserve and pay tribute to the indigenous history and culture of Chile, have characterized her work throughout her career.
While living in Chile during the mid-1960s, Vicuña began an ongoing series of small sculptures she calls precarios, spatial poems in which she combines feathers, stone, plastic, wood, wire, shells, cloth, and other human-made detritus. These tiny sculptures are often loosely fastened together with string, so the materials appear to have gathered naturally. These works are defined by their fragility and ephemerality: Vicuña initially composed the precarios along the ocean’s edge, so that they would inevitably be erased by the high tide. Around the same time, Vicuña became interested in ancient quipus—an Incan method of visual communication and record-keeping involving the knotting of colored strings. Her first spatial weavings date from the early seventies, and soon after she began to make her own Quipus from unspun wool—ephemeral, site-specific installations which combined the tactile ritual of weaving and spinning with assemblage, poetry, and performance. Vicuña’s surreal figurative paintings of the 1970s are more explicitly personal and political than her other bodies of work, and were in direct response to the unrest in Chile and her subsequent exile. These paintings refer to the subtly subversive images made by 16th- century indigenous artists in Latin America after the Spanish conquest, when they were forced to paint angels and saints for the Catholic church. In Vicuña’s paintings, religious icons are replaced by personal, political, and literary figures, commemorated and mythologized by the artist.
Vicuña received her MFA from the National School of Fine Arts, University of Chile in 1971 and continued with postgraduate studies at Slade School of Fine Art, University College London from 1972-1973. Solo exhibitions of her work have been organized at the Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, Mexico (2020); Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Miami, FL (2019); Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, the Netherlands (2019); Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA (2019); Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA (2019); Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH (2019); Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA (2018); Brooklyn Museum, NY (2018); the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive (2018); Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY (2018); Neubauer Collegium, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL (2018); Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA (2017); Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos Humanos, Santiago, Chile (2014); Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile (2014); FRAC Lorraine, Metz, France (2013); Institute for Women and Art, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ (2009); The Drawing Center, New York (2002); and the Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO (2002). Group exhibitions and biennials featuring her work include Artistic License: Six Takes on the Guggenheim Collection, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY (2019); Radical Women: Latin American Art 1960-1985, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2017) traveling to the Brooklyn Museum, NY and Pinoteca de Såo Paulo, Såo Paulo, Brazil (2018); Documenta 14, Athens, Greece and Kassel, Germany (2017); 18th Sydney Biennale, Australia (2012); DANCE / DRAW, the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston (2011); ONLINE, Drawing Through the Twentieth Century, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2010); WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2007); Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (1997); and INside the VISIBLE curated by Catherine M. de Zegher, Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston, traveled to the National Museum of Women in the Arts, Washington, DC, the Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, and the Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth (1996).
Her work is in numerous international private and public collections, including the Blanton Museum of Art at The University of Texas at Austin, TX; Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain de Lorraine, Metz, France; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Santiago, Chile; Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires Malba, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA; Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile; Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Tate Gallery, London; and the University of California Berkeley Art Museum, Berkeley, CA.
Vicuña is the author of 27 volumes of art and poetry published in the United States, Europe, and Latin America. Her filmography includes documentaries, animation, and visual poems. Vicuña has received several awards, including the Premio Velázquez de Artes Plásticas (2019); Herb Alpert Award in the Arts (2019); Anonymous Was a Woman Award, New York (1999); and The Andy Warhol Foundation Award (1997), and in 2015 was appointed the messenger lecturer at Cornell University.
Artist Interview
Selected Exhibitions
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2022
MoCA Tucson, Tucson, Arizona (forthcoming)
2021
Cecilia Vicuña: Seehearing the Enlightened Failure, Centro de Arte Dos de Mayo (CA2M), Madrid, Spain (forthcoming)
Quipu Girok, Lehmann Maupin, Seoul, Korea
2020
Cecilia Vicuña: Seehearing the Enlightened Failure, Museo Universitario de Arte
Contemporáneo, Mexico City, Mexico
Cecilia Vicuna on our mind, The Wattis Insitute, San Fransisco, CA
2019
Cecilia Vicuña: About to Happen, Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, Miami, FL
Cecilia Vicuña: Seehearing the Enlightened Failure, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam, Netherlands
Cecilia Vicuña: About to Happen, Henry Art Gallery, Seattle, WA
Cecilia Vicuña: About to Happen, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia, PA
Cecilia Vicuña: Lo Precario | The Precarious, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH
2018
Quipu Desaparecido, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, Boston, MA
Cecilia Vicuña: About to Happen, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Berkeley, CA
Quipu Desaparecido, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Cecilia Vicuña: La India Contaminada, Lehmann Maupin, New York, NY
Cecilia Vicuña: PALABRARmas, Neubauer Collegium, University of Chicago, Chicago, IL
2017
Dianna Frid and Cecilia Vicuña: A Textile Exhibition, Poetry Foundation, Chicago, IL
Cecilia Vicuña: About to Happen, Contemporary Arts Center, New Orleans, LA
2014
Artists for Democracy: El Archivo de Cecilia Vicuña, Museo de la Memoria y los Derechos
Humanos, Santiago, Chile; Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile
2013
Cecilia Vicuña, England & Co, London, United Kingdom
Les Immémoriales, Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain de Lorraine, Metz, France
2012
Aural, Galería Patricia Ready, Santiago, Chile
2009
Water Writing: Anthological Exhibition, 1966-2009, Institute for Women & Art, Rutgers University, New Brunswick, NJ
Noche de las Especies: la mar herida nos mira, El Gran Vidrio, pensamiento ocular, Consejo Nacional de la Cultura y las Artes, Valparaíso, Chile
2008
Parti Si Pasión, Metales Pesados, Santiago, Chile
2007
Otoño: Reconstrucción Documental, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile
2002
DIS SOLVING: Threads of Water and Light, The Drawing Center, New York, NY
Thread Mansion, Boulder Museum of Contemporary Art, Boulder, CO
2001
Book No Book, Woodland Pattern Book Center, Milwaukee, WI
2000
Se mi ya, Galería Gabriela Mistral, Ministerio de Educación, Santiago, Chile
1998
Cloud-net, Hallwalls Contemporary Arts Center, Buffalo, NY; DiverseWorks Artspace,
Houston, TX; Art in General, New York, NY
1997
K’isa, University Art Gallery, University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, New Bedford, MA
1996
Precario, Inverleith House, Royal Botanical Gardens, Edinburgh, Scotland
1994
Ceq’e Fragments, Center for Contemporary Arts, Santa Fe, NM
Hilumbres Allqa, Kanaal Art Foundation, Kortrijk, Belgium
1992
El Ande Futuro, University Art Museum, Berkeley, CA
1990
Precarious, Exit Art Gallery, New York, NY
1979
Homenaje a Vietnam, Fundación Gilberto Alzate Avendaño, Bogotá, Colombia
1974
A Journal of Objects: 400 precarious objects, Arts Meeting Place, London, United Kingdom
1973
Pain Things & Explanations, Institute of Contemporary Arts, London, United Kingdom
1971
Pinturas Poemas y Explicaciones, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile
Otoño, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2021
Back to Earth,Serpentine Galleries, London, United Kingdom (forthcoming)
Bodies of Water, The 13th Shanghai Biennale, Shanghai, China (forthcoming)
Minds Rising, Spirits Tuning, The 13th Gwangju Biennale, Gwangju, South Korea
(forthcoming)
And If I Devoted my Life to One of it’s Feathers? Kunstalle, Wein, Veinna, Austria
(forthcoming)
Kochi-Muziris Biennale, Kochi, India (forthcoming)
IILA Organizzazione Internazionale Italo-Latino Americana, Rome, Italy (forthcoming)
The Space Between Classrooms, Swiss Institute Annual Architecture And Design Series,
Curated By Alia Farid, Swiss Institute, New York, NY
2020
Witchhunt, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Kobenhavn, Denmark
MadBlue, Conde Duque and Casa Encendida Cultural Center, Madrid, Spain
Rewrite the World, Glassel School of Art at the Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX
A Very Anxious Feeling, Taubman Museum of Art, Roanoke, VA
Ecofeminism, Thomas Erben Gallery, New York, NY
More More More, Tank Shanghai, Shanghai, China
Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI), Lima, Peru
Earthkeeping/Earthshaking, Galeria Quadrum, Lisbon, Portugal
Punctures: Textiles In Digital And Material Time, SPACE Gallery, Portland, ME
2019
A Year in Art: 1973, Tate Modern, London, United Kingdom
Permanent Collection Rehang, Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
An Emphasis on Resistance: 2019 CIFO Grants & Commissions Program Exhibition, El
Museo del Barrio, New York, NY
Contemporary Art: Five Propositions, Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, MA
Collaboration for a Dark Sky, Centro Cultural de Espana, Santiago, Chile
Artistic License: Six Takes on the Guggenheim Collection, Solomon R. Guggenheim
Museum, New York, NY
ARCO Gallery, Madrid, Spain
2018
Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985, Pinoteca de Såo Paulo, Såo Paulo, Brazil
Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Migrations and Material Alchemy, Princeton University Art Museum, Princeton, NJ
2017
Radical Women: Latin American Art, 1960–1985, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
documenta 14, Athens, Greece; Kassel, Germany
Movimientos de Tierra, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile
La timidité des cimes, Fonds Régional d’Art Contemporain de Lorraine, Metz, France
2016
Embodied Absence: Ephemerality and Collectivity in Chilean Art of the 1970s Now,
Carpenter Center for the Visual Arts, Harvard College, Cambridge, MA
Strange Oscillations and Vibrations of Sympathy, University Galleries of Illinois State University, Normal, IL
Una imagen llamada palabra, Centro Nacional de Arte Contemporáneo, Cerrillos, Chile
La emergencia del pop. Irreverencia y calle en Chile, Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende, Santiago, Chile
A Kingdom of Hours, Gasworks, London, United Kingdom
Wild living marine resources belong to society as a whole, Kurant, Tromsø, Norway
2015
Agitprop!, Brooklyn Museum, Brooklyn, NY
Poema de Chile. La Escritura sólo acaba con la muerte, Sala Museo, Universidad de Chile, Santiago, Chile
The Book Undone: Thirty Years of Granary Books, Kempner Gallery, Columbia University
Rare Book & Manuscript Library, New York, NY
Wir sind Utopia: el artista como activista, Matucana 100, Santiago, Chile
Ausencia Encarnada. Efimeralidad y Colectividad en el Arte Chileano de los Años Setenta, Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende, Santiago, Chile
So You Want To See, e-flux, New York, NY
La Buena Estrella, OTR Espacio, Madrid, Spain
Nothing to Hide: The Feminine Landscape of 12 Latin American Artists, Tillou Fine Art, New York, NY
2014
Really Useful Knowledge, Museo Nactional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain;
ashkal alwan, Cairo, Egypt
artevida (corpo), Casa França-Brasil, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; artevida (política), Museu de Arte Moderna do Rio de Janeiro, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2013
Curators’ Series #6: Friends of London. Artists from Latin America in London from l96Xl97X, David Roberts Art Foundation, London, United Kingdom
2012
all our relations, 18th Biennale of Sydney, Sydney, Australia
2011
DANCE / DRAW, Institute of Contemporary Art Boston, Boston, MA
re.act.feminism #2 - a performing archive, Centro Cultural Montehermoso, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain; Galerija Miroslav Kraljević, Zagreb, Croatia; Wyspa Institute for Art, Gdansk, Poland; Museum of Contemporary Art, Roskilde, Denmark; Tallinn Art Hall, Estonia; Fundació Antoni Tàpies, Barcelona, Spain; Academy of Arts, Berlin, Germany
Chile, años 70 y 80 memoria y experimentalidad, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Universidad de Chile, Chile, Santiago
2010
On Line: Drawing Through the Twentieth Century, The Museum of Modern Art, New
York, NY
2009
Subversive Practices: Art under Conditions of Political Repression, Württembergischer Kunstverein, Stuttgart, Germany
2007
WACK! Art and the Feminist Revolution, The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA
2006
Multiplicación, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Santiago, Chile Del Otro Lado, Centro Cultural Palacio de La Moneda, Santiago, Chile
2005
Gabinete de Lectura, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile
2004
Fishing in International Waters: New Acquisitions from the Latin American Collection, Blanton Museum of Art, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
2003
Promoción Popular, Centro Cultural Matucana, Santiago, Chile
2002
Rayuela / Hopscotch, Fifteen Contemporary Latin American Artists, Hope Horn Gallery,
University of Scranton, Scranton, PA; Mahady Gallery, Marywood University, Scranton, PA
2001
Abstraction, The American-Indian Paradigm, Palais des Beaux-Arts, Brussels, Belgium;
Institut Valencià d’Arte Modern, Valencia, Spain
Antagonismos, Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain
Agitación como ritual cotidiano. Cartografías del deseo, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain
2000
Quotidiana, Castello di Rivoli, Turin, Italy
Transferencia y Densidad, 100 años de Artes Visuales en Chile, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile
1998
II Bienal de Barro de América, Museo Alejandro Otero, Caracas, Venezuela
North & South Connected, Cecilia de Torres Gallery, New York, NY
1997
Whitney Biennial, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY
Inside the Visible. An Elliptical Traverse of Twentieth Century Art in, of, and from the Feminine, The Art Gallery of Western Australia, Perth, Australia;
1996
Institute of Contemporary Arts, Boston, Boston, MA; Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, United Kingdom
1994
ar-ti-cu-la-te, Mary Delahoyd Gallery, New York, NY
1992
America: The Bride of the Sun - 500 years of Latin American Art and the Low Countries, Royal Museum of Fine Arts Antwerp, Antwerp, Belgium
1991
Efecto de Viaje: Trece Artistas Chilenos Residentes en Nueva York, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile
1990
The Decade Show, New Museum, New York, NY
1988
The Debt, Exit Art Gallery, New York, NY
1987
Latin American Artists in New York since 1970, Archer M. Huntington Gallery, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
1986
2nd Havana Biennial, Havana, Cuba
1984
Latin American Visual Thinking, Art Awareness Gallery, Lexington, NY
1983
Chilenas, Kunsttamtes Kreuzberg, Berlin, Germany
1982
Women of the Americas, Center for Inter-American Relations, New York, NY
1981
Video from Latin American, The Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY
Ikon & Logos, The Alternative Museum, New York, NY
4th Medellín Biennial, Medellín, Colombia
Bienal de Arte INBO, Cochabamba, Bolivia
1974
Arts Festival For Democracy in Chile, Royal College of Art, London, United Kingdom
7 Artists, The British Council Students Centre, London, United Kingdom
1973
East London Open, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London, United Kingdom
1972
Pintura Instintiva Chilena, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile
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