Guadalupe Maravilla is the recipient of The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award 2021

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Guadalupe Maravilla receives The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award 2021..

Photo: Signe Fuglesteg Luksengard / Henie Onstad Kunstsenter

Guadalupe Maravilla is the recipient of The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award 2021

HØVIKODDEN, October 5, 2021 – Henie Onstad Kunstsenter is proud to announce Guadalupe Maravilla as the recipient of The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award 2021.

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Guadalupe Maravilla (b. 1976, El Salvador) is a visual artist working and residing in Brooklyn, New York. In 1984, aged eight, Maravilla immigrated to the United States as an undocumented, unaccompanied child, fleeing civil war in El Salvador. When as an adult, he was diagnosed with cancer, Maravilla was treated with radiation and chemotherapy alongside his own healing practices and became cancer free. Both events have had an impact on Maravilla’s artistic practice and are present in his artworks.

Maravilla creates performances, videos, sculptures, and drawings that incorporate his pre-colonial Central American ancestry, personal mythology, and autobiography.

“Guadalupe Maravilla is an extraordinary artist combining political engagement with a powerful spiritual language. His work highlights several of the great challenges facing our society today”
— Tone Hansen, Director of Henie Onstad Kunstsenter.
Skjermbilde 2021 10 05 kl 04 02 20

The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award presents 100,000 USD in prize money to a distinguished international artist. Presented biennially, the award aims to mark a significant milestone in an artist's career and represents a financial commitment that places the art award among the most significant internationally. In addition to the prize, there is an acquisition budget for the inclusion of the artist’s work in the Henie Onstad Collection, and the recipient will feature in a dedicated exhibition.

For the first time in Europe, a selection of work by Guadalupe Maravilla will be presented in a solo exhibition at the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Norway as part of The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award Programme (LWAAP). The exhibition will open March 18, 2022  and run through August 7, 2022.

  • 2019 Disease Thrower 7 180 x 96 x 63 inches side view
    ↑ Gaudalupe Maravilla, Disease Thrower #7, 2019.

    Henie Onstad Collection. Courtesy of Guadalupe Maravilla and P·P·O·W, New York.

  • 2019 Disease Thrower 6 180 x 96 x 63 inches
    ↑ Gaudalupe Maravilla, Disease Thrower #6, 2019.

    Courtesy of Guadalupe Maravilla and P·P·O·W, New York.

Regarding his selection, the jury stated:  

“Guadalupe Maravilla’s interdisciplinary practice constantly refers to his experiences of exile and illness, migration and healing, identity and displacement. Yet Maravilla’s work is also far more than his life. Building on personal narratives but venturing far afield into pre-Columbian mythologies, collective memory, geopolitical history, and material culture, the artist constructs artworks that act. His sculptures and elaborate constructions are also performative tools; he collaborates with others to create interactive wall drawings; he has choreographed a motorcycle gang chorus and crossed the Rio Grande using one of his artworks as a flotation device.

When New York became one of the epicenters of the corona virus pandemic, Maravilla organised mutual aid work across the city supporting undocumented and immigrant communities with food and money.”

  • 2021 I want to thank the cucumbers Retablo 46 x 22 5 x 6 inches
    ↑ Gaudalupe Maravilla, I want to thank the cucumbers Retablo, 2021.

    Courtesy of Guadalupe Maravilla and P·P·O·W, New York.

  • 2021 EXVOTO Kambo 31 x 31 x 3 5 inches
    ↑ Gaudalupe Maravilla, EXVOTO Kambo Retablo, 2021.

    Courtesy of Guadalupe Maravilla and P·P·O·W, New York.

Guadalupe Maravilla is the second recipient of The Lise Wilhelmsen Art Award, which was inaugurated in London, U.K., in 2019, with Otobong Nkanga as its first recipient. Her work was presented in a solo exhibition at the Henie Onstad Kunstsenter in Norway in 2020–2021.

Contact information:

Henie Onstad Kunstsenter: Martine Hoff Jensen, mhj@hok.no +47 99520640
Pickles PR: Alfonso Cabello, alfonso@picklespr.com, +34 687394056