Silvia Gruner

Silvia Gruner is a Mexican artist born to a family of Jewish Holocaust survivors.

After completing her Masters at Massachusetts College of Art and Design, she had her first solo exhibition, Conversaciones con un loto azul, (1986) in Boston. Additionally, at the beginning of her career, Gruner began making short films and video performances that she recorded using a Super 8 camera. Her work is said to be heavily influenced by second wave feminism and post conceptual work, which caused critical debate in Mexico during the 1990s. Gruner's art is very unique and personal as she bases many of her pieces on her own personal experiences and culture. In addition, she explores these different ideas of nationality, identity, and feminism through many different mediums. She experiments a lot with film, photography, performance, and interactive art installations in order to appeal to a mass audience. Silvia Gruner is recognized as one of the most original artists of her time in Latin America and is praised for having created a new vocabulary in Mexican contemporary art.

Gruner received her Fine Arts Degree from Bezalel Academy of Art & Design (1978-1982) and pursued her Masters in Fine Arts Degree at Massachusetts College of Art in Boston (1984-1986).

La mitad del Camino/The Middle of the Road, 1994

Gruner wanted to create art directly on a part of the border fence that ran between the Colonia Libertad in Tijuana and San Diego. In this art instillation she installed more than 100 small figures of the Aztec goddess, Tlazoltéotl. The goddess is seen as a symbol of fertility and motherhood, hence why Gruner crafted the goddess in a position of giving birth. It is left up to interpretation as to what Tlazoltéotl, is supposed to signify here at the border as some believe it signifies rebirth and it meant to be comforting to illegal immigrants and a symbol of reassurance that those migrating will not forget their roots and culture. However, others believe that since Tlazoltéotl is stuck on the border in the middle of childbirth, it can also raise a feeling of uncertainty during this significant transitional period where you are between the know and unknown.

Don't fuck with the past, you might get pregnant, 1994

Gruner created an installation with a series of 16 photographic prints that depict small clay figures. Each Ektacolor (chromogenic development) print measures 20x24 inches and brings the overall installation to a size of 108x96 inches. She continues to explore the theme of time in this piece and its close entanglement with Mexican culture. She explains how in the Mexican culture people are taught to look at the past in a conservative way and uses this work to address the parallel between culture and different Mexican taboos. She not only challenges this taboo but counters gender binaries by using this piece to deal with the masculine and the feminine simultaneously. In addition, Gruner purposely enters these images with a disruptive attitude in order to powerfully inhabit this unknown territory. Through the use of everyday objects she demonstrates how this piece is deeply rooted in the Mexican culture and shows not only their history but the people themselves within the art.

How to look at Mexican Art, 1995

In How to look at Mexican Art , Gruner pictures her fingers through a punctured molcajete on top of a piece of bright red plastic. A molcajete is a stone tool used to grind different items and are typically associated with indigenous Mexican culture. Molcajetes remain popular today as they are used throughout Latin America to grind different foods. In the photographic diptych, the first picture shows her grasping the molcajete from the top and then moves to put her fingers through the hole from the bottom. Through the use of incorporating her own body in her art it shows how personal this piece is and how she is challenging her culture and Mexican heritage. Additionally, the molcajete contrasts against the bright red plastic can be seen as a contrast between the past and the modern present. The molcajete is also very significant and personal in this piece as it belonged to Gruner's childhood nana, or nursemaid which shows how it has been used by various women and is full of tradition. The ambiguity in this piece is meant to leave viewers with the expectations of typical 'Mexican Art'.

Centinela (Sentinel), 2007

Centinela is a video in which the artist has her head shaved from recent cancer treatments and stands in front of a modernist fountain created by Mathias Goeritz, Ricardo Legorreta, and Isamu Noguchi. Gruner explains how in this piece nothing really happens but simultaneously everything happens. In the video, the subject remains still, completely immobile yet everything in her surroundings continue. The water continues to thrust back and forth, the cars continue to pass by, the environment is dynamic. Once again, through the inclusion of herself in her own work it shows how Gruner explores her own personal life and in this case deals with the emotions of her battle with cancer. Additionally, the title 'Sentinel' refers to a soldier who stands to keep watch as she is doing in the video.

Hemisferios/Hemispheres, 2016

Silvia Gruner's work Hemispheres was aimed to introduce Gruner's work to New York's audience, and explores the dichotomy between the personal and collective. It is an installation of a series of her work and a video interview but the main piece takes place in the garden. This exhibition contains an arrangement of bright red thread, spread throughout two gardens. The piece is meant to exhibit Gruner's brain and the different thoughts and ideas being dispersed throughout the space. Her goal was to express the complexity of thoughts and feelings, in a world so complicated. It is representative of how everything in her life is connected yet it constructed by different fragments. The exhibition highlights her works such as The films Sand (1986) and Sentinel (2007), How to Look at Mexican Art (1995),Bauhaus for Monkeys (2011), and 500 kilos of Impotence (or possibility) (1998). Overall, the exhibition is meant to highlight over 30 years of her work and the dichotomies between a "psychological and subjective dimension, and a political and cultural one."

• 1986 Conversaciones con un loto azul, (Thompson Gallery, Massachusetts College of Arts, Boston Massachusetts)
• 1987 El Callejon del Beso, (Boston, Massachusetts)
• 1990 Instalaciones, dibujos, video, (Museo Universitario del Chopo, Mexico City)
• 1991 De las formas ancestrales o uno comiendose su propia cola, (Curare, Mexico City)
• 1992 Destierro, (Centro Cultural Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City)
• 1992 Destierro, Itzamatitlan, (Morelos, Mexico)
• 1992 Fetiches domesticos, Itzamatitlan, (Morelos, Mexico)
• 1993 La expulsion del paraiso, Ex-Convento de Tepoztlan, (Morelos, Mexico)
• 1993 Los justificaciones del placer, Galeria Nina Menocal, (Mexico City)
• 1994 Azote – a, Installation, Temistocles 44, (Mexico City)
• 1994 Reliquias, Instituto de Cooperacion Iberoamericana de Buenos Aires, (Argentina)
• 1994 Inventario, Video installation, Museo Carrillo Gil, (Mexico City)
• 1996 Cubiertos, XXIV Festival Cervantino, Alhondiga de Granaditas, (Guanajuato, Mexico)
• 1997 Collares, Centro de la Imagen, (Mexico City, Mexico)
• 1997 Detalles Arquitectonicos, Galeria Arte Contemporaneo, (Mexico City, Mexico)
• 1998 500 kilos de impotencia (o posibilidad). Installation, Torre de los Vientos, (Mexico City, Mexico)
• 1998 Collares, Fotoseptiembre, Centro Morelense de las Artes, (Morelos, Mexico)
• 1998 Silvia Gruner: Project for the Museum of Contemporary Art, Pan American Series, (San Diego, California)
• 2000 Circuito interior, (Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City)
• 2001 Away From You, (Iturralde Gallery, Los Angeles)
• 2001 Nado Vigilado, video installation, project for Hotel Habita, (Mexico City)
• 2001 Away From You, installation and video, project for Hotel Deseo, Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo, Mexico
• 2007 Centinela, (Museo Experimental El Eco, Mexico City)
• 2016 Hemispheres: A Labyrinth Sketchbook (New York)

• 1986 La Isla de Pandora, Thompson Gallery, Boston, MA
• 1986 Safari, Thompson Gallery, Boston, MA
• 1986 Textos con lagartijas, North Hall Gallery, Boston, MA
• 1989 Tercera Bienal de la Habana, La Habana, Cuba
• 1989 Arte=Vida, Installation, Universidad Iberoamericana, Mexico City, Mexico
• 1989 De la estructuracion plastica en serie, Centro Cultural Santo Domingo, Mexico City, Mexico
• 1989 A proposito, 14 obras en torno a Joseph Beuys, Ex-Convento del Desierto de los Leones, Mexico City, Mexico
• 1990 New Directions, La Raza Gallery, San Francisco, CA
• 1990 The face of the Pyramid, The Gallery, New York, NY
• 1991 El corazon sangrante/The Bleeding Heart, Institute of Contemporary Art,
• 1991 Boston, Massachusetts
• 1991 La ilusion perenne de un principio vulnerable: otro arte mexicano, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, CA
• 1991 Art from Mexico City, Blue Star Art Space, San Antonio, Texas
• 1991 Personal Profecies, Miami Dade Community College, Miami, FL
• 1991 Todo sereno... 7 jovenes artistas hijos de la ciudad, Galeria del IFAL, Mexico Ciy, Mexico
• 1992 Aktuellekunst aus Mexico, Frankfurter Kunstverein, Frankfurt, Germany
• 1992 Entretropicos, Museo Sofia Imber, Caracas, Venezuela
• 1993 Hedendaagse Mexicaanse Kunstenaars Europalia 93 Mexico, Museum Dhondt Dhaenens-Deurle, Belgium
• 1993 Objeto-Sujeto, XXI Festival Cervantino, Guanajuato y Museo de Monterrey, Monterrey, Mexico
• 1993 Otras graficas, Museo Carrillo Gil, Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico
• 1993 Lesa Natura, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, Mexico
• 1993 Confrontaciones, Casa de America, Madrid Spain
• 1994 Distant Relations, an exhibition of contemporary Irish, Mexican and Chicano Art, Ikon Gallery, Birmingham, England
• 1994 El nacimiento de Venus, TRIANGULAR, Guatemala, Mexico and Switzerland
• 1994 Tendencies, New Art from Mexico City, San Francisco Art Institute, CA
• 1994 La Mitad del camino, InSITE 94, border Tijuana-San Diego and Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA
• 1994 Las Nuevas Majas, Ottis Parsons Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
• 1996 Distant Relations, an exhibition of contemporary Irish, Mexican and Chicano Art, Camden Arts Center, Irish Museum of Modern Art, Ireland and Santa Monica Museum of Art, CA
• 1996 Tendencies, New Art from Mexico City, Vancouver Art Gallery, Vancouver, Canada
• 1996 Video Faz, Art+Idea, Mexico City and Museo Regional de Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
• 1996 10th Biennale of Sidney, Sidney, Australia
• 1996 Vivir es dejar huella, Instituto Cultural Cabañas, Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico
• 1997 Asi esta la cosa, Instalacion y Arte objeto en Latinoamerica, Centro Cultural Arte Contemporaneo, Mexico City, Mexico
• 1997 Life's Little Necessities, 2nd Johannesburg Biennial, Cape Town, South Africa
• 1997 Cercanias Distantes, Undialogo entre artistas chicanos, irlandeses y mexicanos, Museo Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico
• 1997 The Conceptual Trend: Six Artists, Museo del Barrio, New York, NY
• 1997 Mexico Hoy, Punto de partida, Ohio Arts Councils Riffe Gallery, Ohio
• 1998 En Crudo, Museo Nacional De Arte, Mexico City, Mexico
• 1998 Collares, Fotoseptiembre International 98, Instituto Morelense de las Artes, Cuernavaca, Mexico
• 1998 El Cuerpo Aludido, Museo Nacional de Arte, Mexico City, Mexico
• 1998 En crudo, Museo Nacional de Arte, Mexico City, Mexico
• 1998 Desde el cuerpo: Alegorias de lo femenino, Museo de Bellas Artes, Caracas, Venezuela
• 1998 97- Escultura Itinerante, Museo Regional de Guadalajara, y 10 sitios mas, Mexico
• 1999 Yo y mi circunstancia, Museo de Bellas Artes, Montreal, Canada
• 1999 Performed Sculpture: Food, Rare Art Projects, New York, NY
• 1999 Talleres: Art from Guadalajara Workshops, Track 16 Gallery, Santa Monica
• 1999 Sous la grisalle de Mexico, Espace dArt Yvonamor Palix, Paris, France
• 2000 Cinco Continentes y Una Ciudad, Museo de la Ciudad de Mexico, Mexico City
• 2000 El Enigma de los Cotidiano, Casa de América, Madrid, Spain
• 2000 InSITE 2000, San Diego, CA – Tijuana, Mexico
• 2000 Kwanju Biennale 2000, Kwangju, Korea
• 2001 Muestra de Video Mexicano, Touluse, Montpellier y Barcelona
• 2001 Re-Hacer, Selection of works from the JUMEX collection, Ex-Teresa Arte Actual, Mexico City
• 2001 Ubicaciones, Arte Contemporaneo de Mexico, MUCA, UNAM, Mexico City
• 2001 Drama Queens, Women Behind the Camera, Guggenheim Film Series, Guggenheim Museum, New York, NY
• 2001 The Gelman Collection, Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego, CA, Dallas Art Museum, Dallas, TX, Phoenix Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ
• 2001 Art Line, Borken, Germany
• 2001 The Road to Aztlan, Art from a Mythic Homeland, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles, CA, The Austin Museum of Art, Austin, TX, The Albuquerque Museum of Art, Albuquerque, New Mexico
• 2001 Phoenix Triennial, Phoenix Museum of Art, Phoenix, AZ
• 2001 Video Café, Queens Museum of Art, New York, NY

• Grants & Commissions Award from CIFO (2015)
• Fondo Nacional para la Cultura y las Artes- FONCA (Mexico, 2012-2015, 2008-2011, 2002–2005, 1999-2002)
• Apoyo del FONCA para Proyectos Especiales y Coinversiones Culturales, Mexico (1993-1994)
• Rockefeller MacArthur Film, Video and Multimedia Fellowship (1999-2000)
• FONCA scholarship (Mexico, 1990-1991)
• MFA with honors, Massachusetts College of Art, Boston, MA (1986)