Valeria Guillen
Bio: I was born in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. I studied in a french school called Lycée Franco- Hondurien. I moved to Miami in 2011 and went to Broward College to learn English and then get my AA in Printmaking. I transferred to NWSA where I got my BFA in Painting. I worked 4 years between my studio practice, the museum world and making nails. Today, after 2 years of being in New York, I am able to share these objects of care thanks to all of you.
valeria-guillen.com
Instagram @measure_twice_cut_1ce
Instagram @co_lec_ti_vo
Thesis Exhibition
Artist Statement: Valeria Guillén’s process-based and permutative practice generates a series of auspicious symbols and conditions that playfully ask us to reconsider language hierarchies, materiality, and humor. These seemingly familiar forms presented comically and absurdly are authentic to the issue they reference. Whether it is toilet paper represented ad infinitum (demonstrating the fallacies of late capitalism production systems) or an irreverent figure of a public defecator, Guillén uses humor in the face of collapsing societies that have equated amassing toiletries as a sign of progress.
Reminiscent of the aesthetics of rebusque in the tropics—a process of defining a problem (or the solution to a problem) in terms of (a simpler version of) itself—Guillén taps into plasticity as an expanded attitude where materials respond directly to environments of scarcity and uncertainty, encouraging us to question their physical and cognitive potentials. Guillén’s practice exists then not just because of the language of art but despite it.
Valeria Guillén
Cada quién hace de su trasERO un florERO, 2024
Glazed stoneware ceramics, silkscreen on cardboard, plexiglass and steel rod
Courtesy of the artist
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To extrude, to abject, 2024
Glazed stoneware ceramics, PLA plastic, steel rod, and silkscreen on paper
Courtesy of the artist
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The Sorcerer's Apprentice or Bootleg Mickey makes escobas pa' limpiar, 2024
Color pencil and enamel paint on paper on wood panel, PLA plastic and plexiglass
Courtesy of the artist
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May you live a life of prosperity, 2024
Glazed porcelain, and PLA plastic
Courtesy of the artist
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The belly button of the wall, 2024
Peep hole lens, PLA plastics, oil paint on drop cloth, plexiglass, and lightbulbs
Courtesy of the artist
First Year Exhibition
Valeria Guillen
Chewing Together/ Masticando Juntitos, 2023
Plaster, Latex Glove, Steel Metal inside of Plexiglass box
16" x 12" x 9"
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Drinking the Kool-aid/ Pàjaro carpintero buscando chicle, 2023
Birch Plywood, Porcelain, Wood Veneer, and Plexiglass
132" x 18" x 12"
Courtesy the artist
