Cecilia Vicua, Award Winning Poet and Artist From Chile, Joins The Xavier Hufkens Gallery

Xavier Hufkens, one of Europe's foremost contemporary art galleries, has announced that Chilean artist Cecilia Vicua has joined the gallery. Vicua has devoted her life to rescuing the traditional indigenous wisdom of her country and placing it in conversation with the modern world. Through poetry, painting, installations, and ritualistic performances, she intends to arouse in her audiences a sense of communal activity and disrupt the destructive forces that are killing both the world and mankind.

Vicua is renowned for two continuing pieces of work, precarios and quipus, which she has been producing since the 1960s. Both originate from old Andean customs. The former are little spatial poetry composed of feathers, stone, plastic, wood, wire, shells, fabric, and other artificial debris, which are often intertwined to create organic constellations. The quipus are based on an old Andean system of communication and record-keeping that included tying coloured ropes together.

"A visionary artist and a pioneering activist, Cecilia Vicua's transcultural and diverse approach is profoundly intuitive and forward-thinking," says Xavier Hufkens. Her work addresses today's most pressing global concerns, a relevance that is reflected in the institutional acclaim she has achieved so justly. I cannot wait to exhibit Cecilia's work at the gallery in the fall of 2023 since she is such a sensitive, conscientious, and original artist.

Cecilia Vicua resides in Santiago and works in New York. She was awarded the Golden Lion for Lifetime Achievement at the 2022 Venice Biennale. Other accolades include the Premio Velázquez de Artes Plásticas in Madrid, Spain (2019), the Herb Alpert Award in the Arts in Santa Monica, California (2019), the Anonymous Was a Woman Award in New York, New York (1999), and The Andy Warhol Foundation Award in New York, New York (2019). (1997). Lehmann Maupin will continue to represent the artist in New York, Hong Kong, Seoul, and London.

Source: XavierHufkens