Guadalupe Maravilla: Mini Relámpagos (2024)

Artspace and Ballroom Marfa are pleased to announce a new limited edition of 25 bronze sculptures by interdisciplinary artist Guadalupe Maravilla, entitled Mini Relámpagos. The artist’s first bronze edition, Mini Relámpagosrelates to the large-scale traveling sculpture Mariposa Relámpago currently on view at Ballroom Marfa in Texas. The artist’s work is also currently on view at P•P•O•W gallery in New York City.

Mini Relámpagos is a hybrid lightning bolt and serpent figure that—like much of the artist’s work—draws inspiration from many different ancient and contemporary healing practices. Produced in close collaboration with artisans in Mexico City, Mini Relámpagos is nearly two feet long and engineered to be displayed flat or hung vertically.

Maravilla’s work is autobiographical, often referencing his unaccompanied, undocumented migration to the United States due to the Salvadoran Civil War. His practice is grounded in the historical and contemporary contexts belonging to undocumented communities and the cancer community as a means of addressing experiences of war, displacement, illness, and healing.

“If you really start thinking about it, a lot of traditions are always about collective healing. Obviously it’s important for us to do our individual work but ultimately the collective healing is really important as well. And that’s a big part of my practice.” —Guadalupe Maravilla Maravilla’s work has been exhibited in prestigious institutions internationally and resides in the permanent collections of the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; and the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami. Ballroom edition sales help fund exhibitions and programs at Ballroom Marfa, which are always free and open to the public.

Edition of 25

This work comes with a Certificate of Authenticity.

Cast bronze with Verdigris patina

Sculpture size is 23.60 x 6.10 x 1.20 in or 59.9 x 15.5 x 3.0 cm

Specifications:

Format: Sculpture
Size: × mm ( × in)
Pages: pp
Illustrations: illustrations
ISBN: 9800100000087

Guadalupe Maravilla is a transdisciplinary visual artist, choreographer, and healer. At the age of eight, Maravilla was part of the first wave of unaccompanied, undocumented children to arrive at the United States border in the 1980s as a result of the Salvadoran Civil War. In 2016, Maravilla became a U.S. citizen and adopted the name Guadalupe Maravilla in solidarity with his undocumented father, who uses Maravilla as his last name. As an acknowledgment of his past, Maravilla grounds his practice in the historical and contemporary contexts belonging to undocumented communities and the cancer community.

Combining pre-colonial Central American ancestry, personal mythology, and collaborative performative acts, Maravilla’s performances, objects, and drawings trace the history of his own displacement and that of others. Culling the entangled fictional and autobiographical genealogies of border crossing accounts, Maravilla nurtures collective narratives of trauma into celebrations of perseverance and humanity.

Across all media, Maravilla explores how the systemic abuse of immigrants physically manifests in the body, reflecting on his own battle with cancer, which began in his gut. Maravilla’s large-scale sculptures, titled Disease Throwers, function as headdresses, instruments, and shrines through the incorporation of materials collected from sites across Central America, anatomical models, and sonic instruments such as conch shells and gongs. Described by Maravilla as “healing machines”, these Disease Throwers ultimately serve as symbols of renewal, generating therapeutic, vibrational sound.

He has performed and presented his work at the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York; the Museum of Modern Art, New York; the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; the Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami; Queens Museum, New York; The Bronx Museum of the Arts, New York; El Museo del Barrio, New York; Museum of Art of El Salvador, San Salvador; X Central American Biennial, Costa Rica; New York; Shelley & Donald Rubin Foundation, New York; and the Drawing Center, New York, among others.