Yolanda Gutiérrez/en

Yolanda Gutiérrez

Datos generales

Nombre	Yolanda Gutiérrez
Fecha de nacimiento	1970
Nacionalidad	Mexicana
Ocupación	Artista
Formación profesional	Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas de la Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México
País de nacimiento	México
Ciudad de nacimiento	Ciudad de México

Yolanda Gutiérrez is a Mexican artist with a degree from the National School of Visual Arts at Mexico’s National Autonomous University. Her work is characterized by the development of community projects and installations in public space, spanning diverse disciplines such as music, medicine, therapy, herbalism, and ecology. She has participated in various collective and individual exhibitions in countries including Germany, the United States, France, Spain, Chile, and Colombia, and her work is collected by institutions such as UNAM’s Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC) in Mexico, the Musée de Picardie in Amiens, France, and the Miguel Urrutia Art Museum in Bogotá, Colombia. She currently lives and works in Atlixco in Puebla, Mexico.

Biography

Yolanda Gutiérrez was born in 1970 in Mexico City. In 1988 she enrolled in the National School of Visual Arts at Mexico’s National Autonomous University (UNAM). Her work centers on researching, living with, and learning the customs and beliefs of Mexican indigenous and peasant communities, with a special interest in artisan practices and the use of everyday objects. Involving different disciplines such as medicine, therapy, herbalism, and music, the artist's work is based on principles of care and respect for nature and the land. The particularities of her work are related to the artistic current proposed by the American artist Robert Smithson of the Land Art movement, which postulated nature as a material for creation and a space for artistic intervention and gained wide recognition in the sixties. In the words of Yolanda Gutiérrez, “The intention of my work is to make art a means of deifying the natural as a source of life, origin, and reflection of our very being, seeking to communicate to the viewer that nature is part of us, making them aware of our lack of awareness, which by no means relieves us of our responsibility for our separation from it.”

Artistic career

In 2004, she participated in the exhibition “El Arte de América Latina en la Transición al Siglo XXI” (Latin American Art in the Transition to the Twenty-First Century) in Santiago de Chile, with the work De las hojas sólo queda el susurro (Only a Whisper Remains of the Leaves), which consists of a series of plasticized leaves contained in vegetable forms that grow on charcoal, alluding to false nature or its simulacrum. In 2010, as part of the third edition of “Festival Arte por la Tierra” in Guadalajara, Mexico, the artist produced packages of water frozen in a special agricultural gel, with the aim of having the public write positive words related to the water cycle on them. This work was based on the work of the Japanese doctor Masaru Emoto, which consists of energetically stimulating water with positive words such as love or gratitude. In 2012 she taught the workshop Mandalas: The Art of Drawing in Circles at the Mexico-Canada Interdisciplinary Art Encounter “SiMBiOSiS—SyMBiOSiS”, where the basic foundations of mandalas were discussed, including sessions on drawing, color, geometry, and meaning. In 2015 her community project “Recrea Xonacayucan” focused on creating ecological artworks in various settings of the San Felipe Xonacayucan Park in Atlixco, involving nearly 200 children and youth from various public schools in the municipality through recreational, educational, and environmental activities. Based on this project, the artist was invited to participate with the installation Cola de Burro (Donkey Tail) at the Royal Botanical Garden in Toronto, Canada, during the Pan American Games, taking inspiration from the pre-Hispanic ball game of the ancient Mesoamericans. In the same year she produced ¿Qué te hace florecer? (What Makes You Bloom?), an artistic intervention that consisted of building an offering for a centennial tree in the Seisenneg Park in Italy, made up of vines and flowers crafted by the community’s young students, along with the realization of a series of written notes that answered title question. As part of a collective with José Lazcarro, May Zindel, Rita Granados, Jordan Rangel, Yelte Castro and Kenji Alvarado, she developed the installations Ukiyo-e Deriva and Alba, paso de sombras (Alba: Shadows Passing). For Ukiyo-e Deriva, they produced more than 500 jellyfish in corn leaves, amate paper, and cotton yarn, which were presented with video mapping at Casa de Arte El Leñero in Mexico. With Alba: Shadows Passing, the El Carmen former convent in Guadalajara was involved in interactive light and sound structures, in commemoration of the International Year of Light in 2015.

Characteristics of her work

Gutierrez’s work is characterized by the use of nature as material and as a space for artistic intervention in order to make it visible and recognize it as a source of life and reflection for human beings. To this end, and based on the principles of respect for the land and conservation, Gutiérrez develops her work through research and long periods of living with Mesoamerican indigenous and peasant communities, such as the Uyits Kaán peasants in Mani, Yucatan, and Mayan indigenous peoples. Gutierrez is also interested in producing artistic works that integrate different techniques and disciplines, such as ecological agriculture, Mayan herbalism, and Mey Therapy, establishing continuous relationships with the inhabitants of the places where she carries out her artistic interventions. She employs materials such as corn and cotton, associated with ancestral Latin American cultures. Her work has been exhibited at Museo Universitario Contemporáneo de Arte (MUAC) in Mexico City, the World Bank in Washington, and the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia, among other places.

Featured works

• 2000: Agualuna (Moonwater)
• 2004: De las hojas sólo queda el susurro (Only a Whisper Remains of the Leaves)
• 2006: ICTHUS
• 2015: Cola de Burro (Donkey Tail)
  • ¿Qué te hace florecer? (What Makes You Flower?)
  • Alba, paso de sombras (Alba: Shadows Passing)

Works by Yolanda Gutiérrez in the Banco de la República Collections

Works by Yolanda Gutiérrez in the Banco de la República Collections

Title	Year	Location	Technique	Registration number
En esencias (In essences)	1993	Reserve	Installation	AP2368

Timeline

• 1970: Born in México City.
• 1988-1992: Studied at the National School of Visual Arts at Mexico’s National Autonomous University (UNAM).
• 1993-1994: Won the Jóvenes Creadores fellowship from Mexico’s National Fund for Culture and the Arts in the category of sculpture.
• 1997: Solo exhibition Tierra Virgen (Virgin Land), Carrillo Gil Contemporary Art Museum, Mexico City.
  • Participated in the Istanbul Biennial, Turkey and the second InSITE Biennial in 1994 in San Diego and Tijuana.
• 1999: Individual exhibition Americana III, at Jeu de Paume in Paris, France.
• 2000: Solo exhibitions Atl
• 2004: Exhibited at Eux Vives, Regards Croisés, Maison de la Culture Frontenac, Montreal, Canada.
• 2005: Installations in the Mexican pavilion at the Universal Exposition at Aichi, Japan.
• 2006: Solo exhibition, Adentrarse en la Tierra de la Abundancia (Coming Into the Land of Abundance) at Galería de Arte Mexicano, Mexico. Exhibits ICTHUS, a result of her residency at Espace d'Art, Contemporaine Andre Malraux in Colmar, France.
• 2007: Produced a permanent monumental work for the garden of Hotel Mandarín, Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, México.
• 2008: Exhibited at the Royal Botanical Gardens in Hamilton, Canada and at Sculpture Sackville 2008 in Sackville, Canada.
• 2011: Exhibited in Hortus, the Garden of the Hermitage of Santa Isabel, Mérida, Yucatán.
• 2012: Participated in A-Part festival at the Chapel of Perseverance in Tarascon, France.
• 2015: Participated in Merano Art & Nature Spring 2015 in Italy and the Earth Art Exhibition at the Royal Botanical Garden in Hamilton, Canada.
• 2015-2018: Became a member of the Mexican National System of Art Creators.

See also

• Natalia Castañeda
• María Fernanda Cardoso
• Luz Ángela Lizarazo

Bibliography

1.arrizosa, P. (25 de 11 de 2015). La Jornada de Oriente . Taken from "CON RECREA XONACAYUCAN, LA ARTISTA YOLANDA GUTIÉRREZ INTEGRÓ ARTE Y NATURALEZA": https://www.lajornadadeoriente.com.mx/puebla/con-recrea-xonacayucan-la-artista-yolanda-gutierrez-integro-arte-y-naturaleza/

2.digital, G. (s.f.). Taken from "CV Yolanda Gutierrez": http://galeriadigital.mx/portafolio/CV_Yolanda_Gutierrez.pdf

3.Fichero de artistas. (s.f.). Taken from "Textos breves con información básica de algunos artistas": https://vnarro.wordpress.com/tag/yolanda-gutierrez/

4.Fronda. (s.f.). Taken from "Yolanda Gutiérrez": https://www.fronda.mx/simbiosis2012/artistas/yolanda-gutierrez/

Art collection of the Banco de la República

• Visit Yolanda Gutiérrez's artwork at Colección de arte

Credits

1.Research and text: Mónica Piragauta Roldán, mediator of Banco de la República museums and collections, for Banrepcultural.

2.Review and editing: Inti Camila Romero Estrada and Diana Marcela Salas Solórzano. Public and Educational Services, Art, and Other Collections Unit (UAOC).

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