I use embroidery to look at the failed state of American society, specifically through the internal and external effects of our violent ways, asking: Why do we hate, kill and maim each other, ourselves and so many around the world? I am looking at the effects of this hurt and I’m asking: Why have we constructed this society? How do we tolerate it? Why do we accept it? How much pain are we actually in? I am bearing witness to a particularly grotesque period and perhaps end state in American history. I am an artist, not a philosopher, historian, sociologist or anthropologist – I just want to look at the hurt, the real pain, what is actually being felt. I want to give us all a bit of dignity, to acknowledge the wrongness of this totally grotesque violation of our being. I want us to have the chance to feel the truth of our pain honestly and deeply so that we may have the chance to hopefully evolve beyond this state where the only solution to all of our problems personally and culturally as a nation seems to be violence and the language and practices of war.
Mateo Gutiérrez is an artist who makes hand-embroidered artworks that bring into question the underlying culture of violence endemic to American life both personally, politically and historically. Mateo moved to the U.S. at the age of sixteen, and has struggled with his conflicted relationship to the U.S. ever since. He presents both a sociopolitical and a deeply personal reflection on what it means to be American. Mateo has exhibited nationally throughout the US including multiple museum exhibitions: the Austin Museum of Art, MexicArte Museum and a solo exhibition at the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art in 2023. Mateo is a featured artist in the 2024-2025 Texas Biennial. Mateo has been featured in New American Painters, Hyperallergic, the Austin American Statesman, The Hartford Courant, Glasstire and other notable journals. Mateo was a resident in the Bronx Art Space Governors Island Residency on Governors Island New York City in 2021, and will be starting a residency in Brooklyn NY at the Textile Art Center in the Fall of 2025. Mateo gave a TEDx talk in 2024 about his series “And I Feel Fine / Y Me Siento Bien.”
Website: www.mateogutierrez.net
Instagram: @mateo_gutierrez_artist