Draft:Mateo Gutierrez

Mateo Gutierrez (born 1968) is an American visual artist. His hand-embroidered paintings present a compelling and emotionally vivid viewpoint on a uniquely American underlying social psychology defined by violence and the grief it begets. He works in the style of large format historical painting employing historical movements such as realism, fiber art and abstract art combined in the same complex compositions. His work focuses on mass shootings and immigration as the two central themes of his practice, bringing images together that he sources online to juxtapose grief and suffering in order to allow the viewer to experience American cultural violence slowly, through painstakingly hand-embroidered art works.

'''Biography '''

Mateo Gutiérrez is a contemporary art ist who makes hand-embroidered artworks to bring into question the underlying contemporary cultural ethos of violence endemic to American life both personally, politically and historically. Mateo moved to the U.S. at the age of sixteen, and has struggled with his conflicted relationship to the U.S. ever since. He presents both a sociopolitical and a deeply personal reflection on what it means to be American. He challenges the viewer with a powerful and challenging critique of the traumatic effects of the so-called "American way of life" and also what it means to be an outsider as both foreign born and Latino. He cites his complex experience with the United States as central to his understanding of American cultural practices that are defined by racial and socioeconomic hierarchies engendering violence and xenophobia.

Mateo often sources his images online from news stories that he feels best depict a contemporary view of the traumatic effects of the underlying cultural code of violence in American society, stories that themselves make headlines for a short period of time and then are discarded from the cultural discussion, much like the people in the images themselves. In his work Mateo seeks to bring these all too often forgotten tragedies that litter the American landscape back to life, to make us look at them in excruciating detail by meticulously hand-embroidering them as a rejection of the immediacy and disposability of the social media news cycle.

Mateo has exhibited nationally in galleries in Los Angeles, New York and Texas, including multiple museum exhibitions: the Austin Museum of Art, MexicArte Museum and a solo exhibition at the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art in 2023. Mateo has been featured in New American Painters, Hyperallergic, the Austin American Statesman, The Hartford Courant, Glasstire and other notable journals. Mateo was shortlisted for the NXTHVN residency in New Haven CT and the Field Projects residency in NYC, and was a resident in the Bronx Art Space Governors Island Residency on Governors Island New York City in 2021. Mateo has a BA in philosophy from the University of California at Berkeley and his MFA in studio painting from the University of Texas at Austin.

Exhibitions

Art League Houston, Houston, TX (2025)

La Mecha Contemporary, El Paso, Texas (2023)

Brownsville Museum of Fine Art, Brownsville, Texas (2023)

Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin, Texas (2023)

BronxArtSpace, Bronx, NY (2022)

The Border Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (2021)

BronxArtSpace, Governors Island, NY (2021)

DorDor Gallery, Brooklyn, NY (2021)

Shrine Gallery, NY, NY (2021)

MOCA Long Island, Patchogue, LI, NY (2020)

The Urban Collective & Nasty Women, New Haven, CT (2020)

Field Projects Gallery, NY, NY (2020)

Buckwild Gallery, Los Angeles, CA (2007)

Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin, Texas (2005)

Lawndale Art Center, Houston, Texas (2002)

Jones Contemporary, group exhibition, Austin, TX (2002)

Austin Museum of Art, Austin, TX (2002)

Selected Press

2023

Glasstire (Texas Visual Arts), La Mecha Contemporary, group exhibition write up, August issue

Brownsville Valley Central 23 Channel 4 and Danielle Banda "Valley Por La Vida", TV interview

Glasstire (Texas Visual Arts), Brownsville Museum of Fine Art solo exhibition write up, May issue

2022

The Magic Spark Podcast, featured guest, "The Wound of Worthiness & Belonging: Artist Interview"

New American Painting, featured artist, Issue #152 “Northeast”

2021

Hyperallergic, "Your Guide to Explore the Unfamiliar at Gowanus Open Studios"

Mott Haven Herald, "Five Bronx Artists Chosen for Governors Island Residency"

2020

Hyperallergic, “A View From the Easel During Times of Quarantine”

Hartford Courant, “Rituals of Resistance”

Arts Council Greater New Haven, “In Year Four, Nasty Women Returns To Its Roots”

2000

Austin American Statesman, "22 to Watch"

Austin Chronicle, "Behind the Storage Unit Door"

Public Talks

February 2025: Artist Talk and Q&A, Art League Houston,  Houston, TX

February 2024: TED Talk at Texas State University

May 2023: Solo-exhibition Artist Talk and Q&A at Brownsville Museum of Fine Art

Awards & Honors

2021 Top Ten Studio Picks by NY & LA based curator & writer Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy, Gowanus Open Studios

1999 Minority Fellowship Award, University of Texas Austin

1997 Merit Award, University of Texas Austin