Maria Gaspar

Maria Gaspar (born 1980) is an American interdisciplinary artist and educator.

Her works have been exhibited at venues including the Museum of Contemporary Art located in Chicago, Artspace in New Haven, CT, African American Museum, Philadelphia, PA, and many others. Gaspar's work has been written about in Artforum, The Chicago Tribune, Hyperallergic, and many other publications.

Early life and education

Gaspar was born in the Little Village neighborhood of Chicago in 1980. Her mother was a professional clown and later went on to be a community-radio DJ in Little Village at a station called WCYC that was part of the Boys & Girls Club. Gaspar has stated in numerous interviews that her mother's work has deeply influenced her art. She attended Whitney M. Young Magnet High School, which had a strong art department, and started her public art career painting community murals. She received a BFA from Pratt Institute in 2002 and in 2009 she received an MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Career

Gaspar is an Assistant Professor of Contemporary Practices at School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Gaspar is the founder and director of The 96 Acres Project. The project has received numerous awards including a 2015 Creative Capital Award and a 2016 Robert Rauschenberg Artist as Activist Fellowship.

Notable works

• Sounds for Liberation
• The 96 Acres Project (2012–Present), which examines the impact of incarceration through artistic interventions at the Cook County Jail located in her native community in Chicago.
• Brown Brilliance Darkness Matter
• On the Border of What is Formless and Monstrous

Awards

• 2018 Imagining Justice Art Grant
• 2017 Art Matters Grant
• 2017 Chamberlain Award for Social Practice at the Headlands Center for the Arts
• 2016 Robert Rauschenberg Artist as Activist Fellowship
• 2015 Creative Capital Award
• 2015 Joan Mitchell Emerging Artist Grant
• Chicagoan of the Year in the Arts in 2014 by art critic and historian, Lori Waxman
• 2008 Sor Juana Women of Achievement Award in Art and Activism from the National Museum of Mexican Art