artist profile
Guillermo Kuitca
born
1961
lives and works
Buenos Aires, Argentina
about the artist
One of the most important painters to have emerged from Argentina, Guillermo Kuitca continues to work in his birthplace, Buenos Aires, to produce art that occasionally reveals undertones of his national history, and is, always, universal. Metaphors for social systems and behavioral structures, diagrams of all sorts are wielded in a spectrum of ways to map, investigate, and, occasionally, subvert the notions of location and expectation. His prolific oeuvre encompasses drawings, collages, and installations, as well as paintings that often offer a dual, diametric viewing experience—an alienating impression standing from afar coupled with an intimate reading when up close. An artist since he was thirteen years old, Kuitca represented Argentina in the 52nd Venice Biennale in 2007, and is collected internationally by numerous important museums. Solo exhibitions of his work have been held all over the world at spaces such as the Daros Foundation in Zürich, Switzerland; the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía in Madrid, Spain; the Fondation Cartier in Paris, France; the Centro de Arte Hélio Oiticica in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil; the Museo Alejandro Otero in Caracas, Venezuela; and the Museum of Fine Arts in Santiago, Chile. In the United States, retrospectives such as Guillermo Kuitca: Everything, Paintings and Works on Paper, 1980–2008 traveled through the Miami Art Museum in Miami, the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, and the Hirschhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden in Washington, D.C.; Burning Beds Guillermo Kuitca: A Survey 1982–1994 moved between the Wexner Center for the Arts in Columbus and the Center for the Fine Arts in Miami, as well as the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London, UK.