Mateo Gutiérrez is a contemporary artist who makes hand-embroidered artworks that bring into question the underlying culture 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.
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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 is a featured artists in the 2024-2025 Texas Biennial, the longest running state biennial in the US. Mateo has been featured in New American Painters, Hyperallergic, the Austin American Statesman, The Hartford Courant, Glasstire and other notable journals. Mateo was a resident in the Bronx Art Space Governors Island Residency on Governors Island New York City in 2021. Mateo gave a TEDx talk in 2024 about his series "And I Feel Fine / Y Me Siento Bien". 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. He lives and works in Austin Texas.​
I'm looking at the failed state of American society through the lens of both the actuality of what that means day to day and more largely through the lens of an empire, specifically through the internal and external effects of our violent ways, the ugly modalities that define us through and through, but also not just in actions or laws or cultural narratives, all those things too, but psychologically, fundamentally, asking: Why do we we hate, kill and maim each other, ourselves and so many around the world? I am looking at the effects of this hurt and I'm asking: Why have we constructed this society? How do we tolerate it? Why do we accept it? How much pain are we actually in? In this respect I feel that I am bearing witness to a particularly grotesque period and perhaps end state in American history. I am an artist, not a philosopher, historian, sociologist or anthropologist - I just want to look at the hurt, the real pain, what is actually being felt. I want to give us all a bit of dignity, in this respect, to acknowledge the wrongness of this totally grotesque violation of our being. I want us to have the chance to feel it honestly, deeply. As Akira Kurosawa said, "To be an artist is to not avert your eyes."
EDUCATION
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M.F.A. Studio Painting, University of Texas, Austin
B.A. Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley
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SELECTED EXHIBITIONS​
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(Upcoming February 2025): Solo exhibition, Art League Houston, Houston, TX
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2024
Texas Biennial 2024, group exhibition, Houston, Austin & San Antonio
2023
La Mecha Contemporary, group exhibition, "A Fine Line", El Paso, Texas
Brownsville Museum of Fine Art, solo exhibition, Brownsville, Texas
Mexic-Arte Museum, group exhibition, Alimento para el Alma / Food for the Soul, Austin, Texas
2022
BronxArtSpace, group exhibition, 5 Artists, "Where Do We All Come From?", Bronx, NY
2021
The Border Gallery, group exhibition, Border Walls IV, Brooklyn, NY
BronxArtSpace, Residency Exhibition, Governors Island, NY
DorDor Gallery, group exhibition, Brooklyn, NY
Shrine Gallery, group exhibition, NY, NY
2020
MOCA Long Island, Night Visions Gallery MOCA L.I.ghts, group exhibition, Patchogue, LI, NY
The Urban Collective & Nasty Women, group exhibition, Rituals of Resistance, New Haven, CT
Field Projects Gallery, group exhibition, Hoarders House, NY, NY
2007
Buckwild Gallery, solo exhibition, Los Angeles, CA
2005
Mexic-Arte Museum, group exhibition, Young Latino Artists, Austin, Texas
Lawndale Art Center, solo exhibition,The Project Room, Houston, Texas
2002
Jones Contemporary, group exhibition, New American Talent, curated by Jerry Saltz, Austin, TX
Austin Museum of Art, group exhibition, 22 to Watch, New Art in Austin, Austin, TX
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RESIDENCIES
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(Upcoming) September 2025 - June 2026, Textile Art Center, Artist in Residence, Brooklyn, NY
2021 Bronx Art Space Governors Island Residency, NYC
AWARDS & HONORS
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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
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SELECTED PRESS
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2024
Glasstire (Texas Visual Arts), Big Medium Announces 2024 Texas Biennial Artists, group exhibition write up, September issue
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"
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PUBLIC SPEAKING​
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(Upcoming) 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​
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TEACHING ​
​​2023-present: Texas State University Department of Art, Studio Art Lecturer
2024 Volunteer Youth Art Instructor, Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center, Austin Texas
1996-1999, University of Texas at Austin, new media teaching assistant