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 both a haunting and empathetic view 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 has exhibited nationally in galleries in Los Angeles, New York and across Texas, including multiple museum exhibitions and prestigious art residencies. Mateo was a featured artist 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, Glasstire and other notable art journals. 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. Mateo is starting a year-long residency at the Textile Art Center in Brooklyn NY in September of 2025. He divides his time between Brooklyn NY and Austin TX.
I use embroidery thread to meticulously hand-embroider images of immigrants and people in the aftermath of mass shootings and people who have been “disappeared” in Latin America. I work directly with photojournalists in the US and with Indigenous movements in Latin America to source my material. I am on a mission to expose, and hopefully in doing so help heal, the underlying psychological disorder of violence plaguing American society, an ethos of violence that terrorizes us both within and outside our borders. I am looking directly at the rotten and destructive core of nationhood, imperialism and empire in general and its failed concept of scarcity, fear and exploitation. My work is about seeing, bearing witness and above all else just slowing down and giving us our dignity back from those who try to take it from us by looking at the violent nature of our society, something I believe is as it is by design, not by accident. My work is about justice and fairness and inclusion and plain old equality and sharing. My work is about feeling our pain as an act of self dignity as living, breathing humans capable of so much good and so much love for each other right here and now. My work is about solidarity through empathy and knowledge. Through it all and to the very end, I deliver my work in solidarity with those who have been harmed at the hands of the few.
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Uso hilo de bordar para bordar meticulosamente a mano imágenes de inmigrantes, personas tras tiroteos masivos y personas desaparecidas en Latinoamérica. Trabajo directamente con fotoperiodistas en Estados Unidos y con movimientos indígenas en Latinoamérica para obtener mi material. Mi misión es exponer, y con la esperanza de que al hacerlo, ayude a sanar, el trastorno psicológico subyacente de la violencia que asola a la sociedad estadounidense, un ethos de violencia que nos aterroriza tanto dentro como fuera de nuestras fronteras. Miro directamente al núcleo podrido y destructivo de la nacionalidad, el imperialismo y el imperio en general, y su concepto fallido de escasez, miedo y explotación. Mi trabajo se trata de ver, dar testimonio y, sobre todo, simplemente frenar y devolvernos nuestra dignidad de quienes intentan arrebatárnosla, observando la naturaleza violenta de nuestra sociedad, algo que creo que es así por diseño, no por accidente. Mi trabajo trata sobre justicia, equidad, inclusión, igualdad y compartir. Mi trabajo se centra en sentir nuestro dolor como un acto de dignidad como seres humanos vivos y capaces de tanto bien y tanto amor mutuo aquí y ahora. Mi trabajo se centra en la solidaridad a través de la empatía y el conocimiento. A lo largo de todo y hasta el final, ofrezco mi trabajo en solidaridad con quienes han sido perjudicados a manos de unos pocos.