Claudia Martínez Garay is a Peruvian artist who lives and works between Amsterdam (NL) and Lima (PE). Martínez Garay's practice encompasses painting, sculpture, printmaking, video, and site-specific installation. As well as interrogating European museum collections and histories, Martínez Garay also takes inspiration from her own Andean heritage, exploring historical images, propaganda, and sounds from her home country. Her sculptural works often reference pre-Columbian knowledge systems and are often combined in larger installations in dialogue with symbolic elements derived from her research.
Martínez Garay is interested in how artefacts, cultural relics, and propaganda communicate the history and social-political memory of cultures. Multiple interpretations of historical figures and artefacts are incorporated into the artist's work, supplanting institutional narratives and notions of stewardship. The artist seeks to challenge the persistence of colonialist frameworks and official narratives informing our understanding of the pre-Columbian cultures. The fractured forms in her work signal stories and identities that have been obscured through a process of erosion, both metaphorical and literal. Martínez Garay reanimates the existing fragments of lost histories, underscoring the connections between that which can be salvaged and continued.
2024 marks a pivotal year for Martínez Garay with two major institutional exhibitions in the UK at Nottingham Contemporary and Dundee Contemporary Arts, followed by a solo exhibition at GRIMM, London in December.
Claudia Martínez Garay (b. 1983 in Ayacucho, Peru) studied printmaking at the Pontificia Universidad Católica of Peru (PE) and was a resident at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten in Amsterdam (NL) from 2016 to 2017.
Solo exhibitions include, Every Seed is Awakened, Dundee Contemporary Arts (UK); Wakchakuna / We Who Share Everything and Nothing, Nottingham Contemporary (UK) in 2024; Ghost Kingdom, GRIMM, New York, NY (US) and Ayataki, Artpace, San Antonio, TX (US) in 2022; Caminos de Liberación, GRIMM, Amsterdam (NL) in 2021; Ten Thousand Things, Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing (CN) in 2020.
Selected group exhibitions include, Devenir Tierra, 80m2 Livia Benavides, Lima (PE); Sediment Spirit, Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts, Norwich (UK); Vessel and Veil, David Castillo Gallery, Miami, FL (US); Echoes of Our Stories, Quinta do Quetzal, Vidigueira (PT); The Measure of the World, RADIUS, Delft (NL) in 2023; Cassandra's Complex, basis e.v., Frankfurt (DE); Who Tells a Tale Adds a Tail: Latin America and Contemporary Art, Denver Art Museum, CO (US); Museum Arnhem, Arnhem (NL) in 2022; No Linear Fucking Time, B.A.K., basis voor actuele kunst, Utrecht (NL); All Eyes | We are the collection, AkzoNobel Art Foundation, Amsterdam (NL); Plural Domains, Harn Museum of Art, Gainesville, FL (US); Fragments of Sphere, Project Space on the Inside, Amsterdam (NL) in 2021; 1 Million Roses for Angela Davis, Kunsthalle im Lipsiusbau, Dresden (DE); The Faculty of Sensing: Anton Wilhelm Amo, Kunstverein, Braunschweig (DE) in 2020; Imagined Communities, 21st Contemporary Art Biennial Sesc_Videobrasil, São Paulo (BR); the 16th Istanbul Biennal titled The Seventh Continent, curated by Nicolas Bourriaud, Istanbul (TR); Immortality, 5th Ural Industrial Biennial of Contemporary Art, curated by Xiaoyu Weng, Ekaterinburg (RU); Diplomacy at Yeh Art Gallery, St. John's University, Queens, NY (US) in 2019; Taning Y/Our Passion, Aichi Triennial, Aichi (JP) in 2019; Pro-Regress, curated by Cuauhtémoc Medina, the 12th Shanghai Biennial; and Triennial: Songs for Sabotage, New Museum, New York, NY (US) in 2018.
Her work can be found in the collections of AkzoNobel Art Foundation, Amsterdam (NL); AMC Art Collection, Amsterdam (NL); Fundación Studie e Richerche Benetton, Treviso (IT); Central Reserve Bank of Peru, Lima (PE); Cisnero Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami, FL (US); Denver Art Museum, CO (US); THE EKARD COLLECTION; Hochschild Collection, Lima (PE); KADIST Collection, Paris (FR) and San Francisco, CA (US); KPMG Art Collection, Amsterdam (NL); LAM museum, Lisse (NL); LOOP Collection, MACBA Museu d'Art Contemporani, Barcelona (ES); Micromuseo al fondo hay sitio, Lima (PE); Museo de Arte de Lima, MALI (PE); Museu Olho Latino, Atibaia (BR); Museum Arnhem (NL); Sifang Art Museum, Nanjing (CN) among others.
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Where the Andes Meets the Alps: Miriam Cahn and Claudia Martínez Garay in Nanjing
Stephanie Bailey, Ocula Magazine, January 7, 2021 -
CLAUDIA MARTÍNEZ GARAY: A LAS REVOLUCIONES, COMO A LOS ÁRBOLES, SE LES RECONOCE POR SUS FRUTOS
Artishock, August 4, 2020 -
A las revoluciones como a los árboles, se les reconoce por sus frutos
Relieve Contemporaneo, July 28, 2020 -
In Pictures
The Art Newspaper, November 21, 2019 -
Highlights from Amsterdam Art Weekend
Sonja-Maria Borstner, Frieze, November 21, 2019 -
Following Censorship Controversy at Aichi Triennale, Artists Discuss Why They Removed Their Work—and Then Reinstated It
Maximilíano Durón, ARTnews, October 14, 2019 -
Following Censorship Allegations, Aichi Triennale Reopens Controversial Exhibition, Puts Back on View Works Removed by A
Maximilíano Durón, ArtNews, October 9, 2019 -
ARTISTS DECRY CENSORSHIP OF AICHI TRIENNALE, DEMAND REMOVAL OF THEIR WORKS
Artforum, August 13, 2019 -
5 Artists to Watch from Art Basel Miami 2018
Monique McIntosh, Art & Object, December 11, 2018 -
Art Basel Miami Beach 2018 - Crossroads of the Creative Class of the Americas
Lisa Morales, Widewalls, December 7, 2018 -
The 10 best solo displays at Art Basel Miami Beach 2018
Benoît Loiseau, Cultured Magazine, December 7, 2018 -
Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation Names 2019 Grant Recipients, Including Cecilia Vicuña and Claudia Martínez Garay
Maximilíano Durón, ArtNews, December 6, 2018 -
6 Emerging Artists to Seek Out During Art Basel Miami Beach This Week
Julia Halperin, Artnet News, December 4, 2018 -
Arturo Kameya y Claudia Martínez Garay: allá en el Caserío, Acá en el Matorral
Gerardo Chávez-Maza, Artischock, July 26, 2018 -
9 Art Events to Attend in New York City This Week
The Editors of ARTnews, ARTnews , June 4, 2018 -
New Museum Triennial: “Songs for Sabotage”
Contemporary Art Daily, April 29, 2018 -
The Cultural Frontline
Tina Daheley, BBC Sounds, March 17, 2018 -
How the New Museum’s Triennial Sabotages Its Own Revolutionary Mission
Ben Davis, ArtNet News, February 20, 2018 -
New Museum’s 2018 Triennial: Songs for Sabotage
Philips, Vimeo, February 15, 2018 -
First Look at the New Museum’s Politically Charged Triennial, ‘Songs of Sabotage’
Scott Lynch, Bedford & Bowery, February 13, 2018 -
New Museum Triennial Takes a Global View of Aesthetic Resistance
Benjamin Sutton, Hyperallergic, February 13, 2018 -
See Photos of the Highlights From the New Museum’s ‘Songs for Sabotage’ Triennial
Sarah Cascone, Artnet News, February 12, 2018 -
The New Museum Triennial Asks: Can Artists Sabotage the Status Quo?
Scott Indrisek, Artsy, February 12, 2018 -
Meet the artists in the New Museum Triennial 2018
Howard Halle, TimeOut, February 9, 2018 -
Meet Six Disrupters at the New Museum’s Triennial
Hilarie M. Sheets, The New York Times, February 2, 2018 -
Avant-garde legends and art to change the world
Gabrielle Schwarz, Apollo Magazine, December 29, 2017
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Artist Interview | Claudia Martínez Garay: Every seed is awakened
Dundee Contemporary Arts (UK) September 27, 2024Artist Claudia Martínez Garay discusses Every seed is awakened. The exhibition is in DCA galleries from Sat 24 August to Sun 17 November.Read more -
'Opaque Spirits' by Arturo Kameya in Marres, Maastricht
Marres Huis voor Hedendaagse Cultuur April 11, 2024Credit: Hout VideoRead more -
Claudia Martínez Garay: Artist in 'Who tells a tale adds a tail'
Denver Art Museum, CO (US) July 22, 2022Claudia Martínez Garay talks about creating the animation Ayataki, which relates to the history of violence in Peru. 'Who tells a tale adds a tail:...Read more