Guadalupe Maravilla is a transdisciplinary visual artist, choreographer, and healer.
2023 Biennial Year Find out more
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 in 2016 he 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 the undocumented and cancer communities.
Maravilla currently lives in Brooklyn, New York. His work is in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, The Guggenheim Museum, the Whitney Museum of American Art, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami. Additionally, Maravilla has performed and presented his work at the Whitney Museum of American Art, MoMA, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Institute of Contemporary Art Miami, Queens Museum, Bronx Museum of the Arts and many more.
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 Fellowship 2017, Virginia Museum of Fine Arts Fellowship 2018. Residencies include; LMCC Workspace, SOMA, Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture and Drawing Center Open Sessions.
Liverpool Biennial 2023
'Disease Thrower' series (2019)
Guadalupe Maravilla’s ‘Disease Thrower’ series are autobiographical assemblages which are all at once sculptures, shrines, wearable headdresses, and healing instruments. Exploring what constitutes proper care and inclusion, the work reflects on his own experiences as an undocumented migrant and as a cancer survivor.
Some of the objects within the sculptures were gathered during trips on which the artist retraces his original migration route to the USA, that he made alone at the age of eight to escape civil war in El Salvador. They also incorporate items from the spiritual and shamanic practices that Maravilla experienced after his diagnosis with colon cancer in his mid-30s, as well as contemporary rituals created by Maravilla based on his own experiences.
The ‘Disease Thrower’ works are
Guadalupe Maravilla’s ‘Disease Thrower’ series are autobiographical assemblages which are all at once sculptures, shrines, wearable headdresses, and healing instruments. Exploring what constitutes proper care and inclusion, the work reflects on his own experiences as an undocumented migrant and as a cancer survivor. Some of the objects within the sculptures were gathered during trips on which the artist retraces his original migration route to the USA, that he made alone at the age of eight to escape civil war in El Salvador. They also incorporate items from the spiritual and shamanic practices that Maravilla experienced after his diagnosis with colon cancer in his mid-30s, as well as contemporary rituals created by Maravilla based on his own experiences. The ‘Disease Thrower’ works are used during ceremonies in which participants are offered a therapeutic, cleansing environment which centre non-Western, ancient and alternative approaches to healing. Maravilla performs for general audiences and also does private ceremonies for undocumented immigrants and cancer survivors. The artist works with healers of all types to activate the works during sound ceremonies which include gongs, singing, flutes, harmonicas and many other types of instruments. The site-specific ‘Tripa Chuca’ wall drawing is made by the artist and a local resident who shares a similar migration experience of displacement to create a cultural exchange. ‘Tripa Chuca’ (meaning ‘Dirty Guts’) is a Salvadoran children’s drawing game in which participants draw lines that never intersect, connecting pairs of numbers to form an abstract pattern. Maravilla has adapted this game, that he played as a child during his migration journey, to create large-scale drawings and murals that accompany his sculptural works. Showing at Tate Liverpool + RIBA North
'Disease Thrower' series (2019)
Showing at Tate Liverpool + RIBA North
Monday to Sunday 10.00am-5:50pm-
Guadalupe Maravilla, ‘Disease Thrower #8’ and ‘Disease Thrower #9’. Installation view at Tate Liverpool. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Mark McNulty
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Guadalupe Maravilla, Disease Thrower #8 & #9 2019. Liverpool Biennial 2023 at Tate Liverpool. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Stuart Whipps
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Guadalupe Maravilla, Disease Thrower #8 & #9 2019. Liverpool Biennial 2023 at Tate Liverpool. Courtesy of Liverpool Biennial. Photography by Stuart Whipps
