Porfirio Gutiérrez

Three artists of Mexican heritage whose work was included in MCASB’s recent exhibition, Sangre de Nopal are presented together here through indigenous craft practices formerly denigrated as primitive that now offer visions of innovative futures.

Based in California, Zapotec artist, Porfirio Gutiérrez creates installations and performances that explore the contemporary and evolving experience of Native Americans. He maintains the ancestral practice of processing and dyeing with cochineal for his woven artworks, reinterpreting his inherited weaving language by subverting and re-imagining its symbols and forms to create a contemporary indigenous identity. For BTB, Porfirio presents a new textile piece, a film performance and a sculpture that work in tandem to present a deeply personal installation in which body, land, labour and ancestral knowledge are inextricable.

Part of Learning from the Land at The Whitaker.