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    Guadalupe Maravilla

     
    Exterior Mural
    January 17, 2026 — June 07, 2027
    Guadalupe Maravilla (b. 1976, El Salvador, lives and works in Brooklyn, NY) will present a newly commissioned mural for the Henry’s east facade informed by the cross-border legacies of Central American culture and his own migration experience. The work will combine elements and icons from Maravilla’s vast library of illustrated images, playfully and evocatively juxtaposing ancestral and contemporary symbols, with a particular focus on conjuring references to migration journeys and healing.
    Maravilla has an expansive art practice, working across intricately layered paintings, large-scale sculptures, and therapeutic performances that draw from his personal history and Central American ancestry. Often evoking mythic creatures, ornate reliquaries, or historic manuscripts, Maravilla’s work examines the embodied effects of migration, disease, and generational trauma, while creating new rituals for care, healing, and regeneration.

    Artist Bio

    Combinging sculpture, painting, performative acts, and installation, Guadalupe Maravilla (b. 1976) grounds his transdisciplinary 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. 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. Guadalupe Maravilla: Mariposa Relámpago, a solo exhibition featuring a newly commissioned immersive installation at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Boston’s Watershed, is now on a multi-venue tour across Texas.
    CREDITS

    Guadalupe Maravilla is organized by Nina Bozicnik, Senior Curator, with Em Chan, Curatorial Assistant.

    Exhibitions at the Henry are made possible through the generous support of our annual sponsors, 4Culture and ArtsFund.