Henie Onstad Kunstsenter

Guadalupe Maravilla’s first solo exhibition in Europe to open at Henie Onstad in Norway

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Sound Botánica, presenting over 30 works by the 2021 recipient of the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award, will open in March 2022 at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter.
Gaudalupe Maravilla, Disease Thrower #7, 2019. Henie Onstad Collection. Courtesy of Guadalupe Maravilla and P·P·O·W, New York.
Gaudalupe Maravilla, Disease Thrower #7, 2019. Henie Onstad Collection. Courtesy of Guadalupe Maravilla and P·P·O·W, New York.

HØVIKODDEN, November 30, 2021Sound Botánica, Guadalupe Maravilla’s first solo exhibition in Europe will open at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter on 18 March 2022.

Curated by Chief Curator at Henie Onstad Caroline Ugelstad, the exhibition, which forms part of the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award Programme, will present more than 30 works by Guadalupe Maravilla, bringing together pieces from four major series of his body of work: Tripa Chuca; Embroideries; Disease Throwers; and Retablos

“I am truly honored to receive the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award which will enable me to further develop my practice as an artist and provide me with time to continue to create my own path,” said Guadalupe Maravilla upon receiving the award.

Guadalupe Maravilla (b. 1976, El Salvador) is a visual artist working and living in Brooklyn, New York. In 1984, aged eight, Maravilla immigrated to the United States as an undocumented, unaccompanied child, fleeing civil war in El Salvador. When as an adult, he was diagnosed with cancer, Maravilla was treated with radiation and chemotherapy alongside healing practices and became cancer free. The artist’s interdisciplinary practice constantly refers to these experiences of exile and illness, migration and healing. 

A series of freestanding sculptures entitled Disease Throwers, which are created from found objects and materials collected while Maravilla retraces his migration journey, will be on display in the exhibition. At the heart of each sculpture is a gong that is activated during sound baths; a collective, ritual, and meditative healing experience created by the artist. 

During the opening weekend at Henie Onstad, four sound baths performed by Guadalupe Maravilla, Sam Xu, Daniel Givens and Hillary Ramos, two on Saturday and two on Sunday, will be open and free for visitors to attend (registration is necessary).

“Henie Onstad seeks to create the conditions in which art can have a real impact. The Lise Wilhelmsen Award and its exhibition programme contribute to making the museum an inclusive and social arena – which can help to expand art history and encounters with art, much needed in the changing global situation in which we now live,” says Tone Hansen, Director of Henie Onstad Kunstsenter.

The exhibition and acquisitions form part of the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award Programme 2021, which presents 100,000 USD in prize money to a distinguished artist whose work will inspire and motivate future generations to active participation and social responsibility. Presented bi-annually and intended to mark a significant milestone in an artist's career. Guadalupe Maravilla is the second artist to receive the award, which was inaugurated in 2019 with Otobong Nkanga as its first recipient. Two works by Guadalupe Maravilla have been acquired for the Henie Onstad Collection as part of the 2021 Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award Programme: Disease Thrower #7 and I want to thank these magnificent fruits Retablo.

“It is a particular honor to bring Guadalupe Maravilla’s work to Norway and to present an artist who expresses his social vision with such passion and commitment,” says Paulina Rider Wilhelmsen, a member of Tate international Council and one of the founders of the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award.

The exhibition in Norway presents a survey of Maravilla’s considerable body of work. In addition to the Disease Throwers series, Sound Botánica highlights works from:

Tripa Chuca (Dirty Guts) is a reference to a Salvadorian game that Maravilla played during his childhood and along his migration route. The series is also represented in a site-specific work at the Henie Onstad, in which Maravilla “plays out” the game in collaboration with a previously undocumented person. In these drawings, Maravilla directly treats the topic of migration and his own immigration history.

In his Embroideries series, Maravilla condenses the thematic elements of his drawings. On each embroidered work, disembodied limbs, hands, and clenched fists are stitched with dripping blocks of ice (a reference to ICE, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement), skulls, and a hand sowing seeds. These are fictive, contemporary emblems created by the artist to symbolise resistance against the persecution of and political pressure on undocumented immigrants.    

Retablos are devotional “ex-voto” paintings, a popular art form traditionally used to express gratitude for surviving dangerous events. In Maravilla’s retablos, and in the long inscriptions he has inscribed on each of them, the artist gives thanks and expresses gratitude for, among other things, a new chance in life after his cancer treatment, which has made it possible for him to continue as artist and healer. 

The exhibition is accompanied by an illustrated exhibition catalogue. One of the first publications presenting Guadalupe Maravilla's work, it features new essays by Michelle Kuo, danilo machado and Allie Tepper, a curatorial essay by Caroline Ugelstad, a foreword by Tone Hansen and by Paulina Rider Wilhelmsen, as well as a conversation between the artist and Diya Vij.

The media kit can be accessed here.

To arrange a press visit, an interview, or for further information, please contact: 

Martine Hoff Jensen, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, mhj@hok.no, +47 99 52 06 40

Gunhild Varvin, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, gv@hok.no, +47 40 21 75 73

Alfonso Cabello, Pickles PR, alfonso@picklespr.com, +34 687 394 056

Amanda Kelly, Pickles PR, amanda@picklespr.com, +34 685 875 996

Exhibition 

Friday, March 18 - Sunday, August 7, 2022

Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award Ceremony and Official opening

Thursday, March 17, 2022 at 7 pm

Press preview 

Wednesday, March 16, 2022 from 10 am - 12 pm

Sound baths 

Saturday, March 19 and Sunday, March 20, 2022 from 10 - 11 am and 4 - 5 pm (registration required)

Editors’ notes

At a glance

  • Guadalupe Maravilla’s first solo exhibition in Europe will open at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter on 18 March 2022 and runs until Sunday, August 7, 2022
  • Sound Botánica presents a survey of Guadalupe Maravilla’s considerable body of work and is accompanied by an illustrated catalogue
  • The exhibition curator is Caroline Ugelstad
  • Sound Botánica brings together pieces from four major series from Guadalupe Maravilla’s body of work: Tripa Chuca; Embroideries; Disease Throwers; and Retablos
  • Botánica is a reference to a small store that sells herbal and other traditional remedies, together with charms, incense, candles, and other items used for religious or spiritual purposes
  • Sound Botánica forms part of the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award Programme 2021, which awards 100,000 USD in prize money and includes a dedicated exhibition and an acquisition budget
  • Two works by Guadalupe Maravilla have been acquired for the Henie Onstad Collection as part of the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award Programme 2021: Disease Thrower #7 and I want to thank these magnificent fruits Retablo

About the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award Programme

Presented bi-annually, the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award is intended to mark a significant milestone in an artist's career and represents a financial commitment (100,000 USD in prize money) that places the art award among the most significant internationally. In addition to the prize, there is an acquisition budget for the inclusion of the artist’s work in the Henie Onstad Collection, and the recipient will feature in a dedicated exhibition in 2022. The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award was inaugurated in London, U.K., in 2019, with Otobong Nkanga as its first recipient. Her work was presented in a solo exhibition at the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Norway in 2020–2021. The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award Programme is a partnership between the Lise and Arne Wilhelmsen family and the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter. It was established in order to continue and honour Lise Wilhelmsen’s (1936–2019) commitment to the visual arts. The family’s commitment with the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter is confirmed for the next 16 editions, spanning 32 years, with the intention of a further extension.

About the selection process

Guadalupe Maravilla was selected as the recipient of the Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award by an international jury comprising María Inés Rodríguez, editor of Tropical Papers and Curator At Large at MASP, São Paulo; Michelle Kuo, The Marlene Hess Curator of Painting and Sculpture at MoMA, New York; Elvira Dyangani Ose, Director of Showroom, London and appointed director of MACBA, Barcelona; Paulina Rider Wilhelmsen, Tate International Council Member and Founder of LWAAP and Wilstar Social Impact, Oslo; Caroline Ugelstad, Chief Curator at Henie Onstad Kunstsenter, Oslo; and Tone Hansen, Director of Henie Onstad Kunstsenter and Founder of LWAAP. 

Jury statement on the award: 

“Guadalupe Maravilla’s life is also his work. He was brought to the US by a coyote (or human trafficker) as an eight-year-old refugee, fleeing El Salvador’s brutal civil war. Years later, he was diagnosed with colon cancer. The artist’s interdisciplinary practice constantly refers to these experiences of exile and illness, migration and healing, identity and displacement. Yet Maravilla’s work is also far more than his life. Building on personal narratives but venturing far afield into pre-Columbian mythologies, collective memory, geopolitical history, and material culture, the artist constructs artworks that act. His sculptures and elaborate constructions are also performative tools; he collaborates with others to create interactive wall drawings; he has choreographed a motorcycle gang chorus,and crossed the Rio Grande using one of his artworks as a flotation device. When New York became the epicenter of the corona virus pandemic, Maravilla organised mutual aid work across the city supporting undocumented and immigrant communities with food and money, a continuation of his ongoing commitment to immigrant communities.”

About Guadalupe Maravilla

Guadalupe Maravilla is Professor of the Practice at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University, having received his MFA from Hunter College and his BFA from the School of Visual Arts in New York. A solo exhibition, “Portals” was on view at ICA Miami in 2019, and in 2021 he presented the solo exhibition “Planeta Abuelx” at Socrates Sculpture Park, also offering a series of healing sound baths. His work has been exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of Art; Whitney Museum of American Art; Nicaragua Biennial, Managua; and El Museo del Barrio, among other venues. He is a Guggenheim Fellow. Awards and fellowships include Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship 2019, Soros Fellowship: Art Migration and Public Space 2019, Map Fund Grant 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.

About Henie Onstad

Founded in 1968, Henie Onstad Kunstsenter is a private foundation established by Sonja Henie and Niels Onstad at Høvikodden in Norway. A leading arena for national and international art, it features a broad programme of interdisciplinary work presented in exhibitions and events that showcase both modern and contemporary art. http://hok.no/ 

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Gaudalupe Maravilla, Disease Thrower #7, 2019. Henie Onstad Collection. Courtesy of Guadalupe Maravilla and P·P·O·W, New York.
Gaudalupe Maravilla, Disease Thrower #7, 2019. Henie Onstad Collection. Courtesy of Guadalupe Maravilla and P·P·O·W, New York.
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Guadalupe Maravilla, I want to thank these magnificent fruits Retablo, 2021. Henie Onstad Collection. Courtesy of Guadalupe Maravilla and P·P·O·W, New York.
Guadalupe Maravilla, I want to thank these magnificent fruits Retablo, 2021. Henie Onstad Collection. Courtesy of Guadalupe Maravilla and P·P·O·W, New York.
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Photo by Steve Benisty. Courtesy of Guadalupe Maravilla and P·P·O·W, New York.
Photo by Steve Benisty. Courtesy of Guadalupe Maravilla and P·P·O·W, New York.
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Photo by Steve Benisty. Courtesy of Guadalupe Maravilla and P·P·O·W, New York.
Photo by Steve Benisty. Courtesy of Guadalupe Maravilla and P·P·O·W, New York.
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Photo by Steve Benisty. Courtesy of Guadalupe Maravilla and P·P·O·W, New York.
Photo by Steve Benisty. Courtesy of Guadalupe Maravilla and P·P·O·W, New York.
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About Henie Onstad Kunstsenter

Henie Onstad Kunstsenter
Henie Onstad Kunstsenter
Sonja Henies vei 31
1311 Høvikodden

67 80 48 80http://hok.no/

Henie Onstad Kunstsenter er en ledende arena for nasjonal og internasjonal billedkunst, med et bredt utstillingsprogram, en sentral kunstsamling, samt aktiviteter innen musikk og performance. Kunstsenteret er omgitt av et praktfullt parkområde på Høvikodden i Bærum. I tillegg til utstillingsar­ealer på ca. 4000 m2, rommer senteret Lab for barn og unge, møtelokaler for utleie, egen butikk, samt kafeen Piruetten.

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