biography
Magdalena Guajardo is a Mexican-American artist born in Monterrey, Mexico who currently lives and works in San Antonio, Texas. She studied painting and drawing at Southwest School of Art from 2011 to 2015 and is an MFA in Painting and Drawing alumna at the University of Texas (2022).
Her travels and the opportunity to live in different countries have contributed to her artistic development. Guajardo creates art works inspired by her own multicultural background, current affairs, literature, music, religion, and art history.
The artist produces artwork that varies significantly in theme, though consistently explores themes of excesses, mainly materialism and opulence, while enhancing cultural references. Guajardo’s constant evolution, driven by her education and life experiences is accentuated by the chromatic contrast and singular luminosity of her palette and tonal saturation.
Her latest practice includes figurative painting in a dialogue with the Old Masters where Guajardo combines reality and fantasy, guiding the viewer into the vulnerability that is constantly present in our human condition.
statement
Though a figurative painter, Magdalena Guajardo’s artwork represents the emotional content of its characters as well as their narrative. For Guajardo, painting is the best mean through which she can depict feelings and emotions, enabling her to cope with sociocultural events surrounding her life. Her paintings reflect on excesses, domestic violence, animals in the verge of extinction, socio-political, and indigenous subjects.
The Mexican born artist paints medium and large-scale canvases filled with the female figure in a bold palette and wide brushstrokes that give life to scenarios of our contemporary world. The textiles, mainly indigenous textiles, incorporated in her paintings are a reference to female vulnerability and resilience.
Guajardo’s work is always influenced by major players in universal art history. Citing a diverse range of historical influences, including Hieronymous Bosch, Titian, Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Mariano Fortuny, Gustave Klimt, and Lucian Freud, Guajardo claims her figures into an art historical canon dominated by the male gaze.
Additionally, the artist is constantly reflecting on philosophical concepts of excesses. Guajardo studies philosophers such as Plato to create paintings where color gives life to materialism and excesses in our contemporary world. The artist depicts the chaos in our society by showing parallels between the idolatry of luxury items and the self-destruction of humanity. Using anachronistic elements combining Renaissance and Baroque themes in a contemporary style, Guajardo works with both, fantastical and real elements in her creations. Elements that are dense and excessive like the themes explored in Renaissance and Baroque artworks.
resume
Born in Monterrey, NL, Mexico.
Lives and works in San Antonio, Texas.
Education
MFA in Painting and Drawing, University of Texas at San Antonio, 2022
Painting and Drawing, Southwest School of Art, San Antonio, TX, 2011 – 2015
AWARDS & DISTINCTIONS
2022 Charles and Germaine Field Endowed Scholarship Recipient.
2021 Charles and Germaine Field Scholarship, San Antonio, TX.
2021 Peter Flawn Graduate Grant Recipient, San Antonio, TX.
2021 Peter Flawn Graduate Grant Recipient, San Antonio, TX.
2020 DiMicco Artistic Prize for Excellence, Charlotte, NC.
Selected Solo Exhibitions
“Sugar Rush”, Curated by Scott Sherer, Russell Hill Rogers Gallery, San Antonio, TX, December 2022.
“The Thought of Never Seeing You Again”, Curated by Regina Fearmonti, Alon Aesthetics Center, San Antonio, TX, July 2022.
“The Forgotten”, Curated by Alex Rubio, Rubio Gallery-South, San Antonio, TX, April 2019
“Into My Soul”, Curated by the artist, Portfolio Real State Space at the Dominion, San Antonio, TX, May 2017
Selected Group Exhibitions
“Uvalde Strong”, Curated by Ana Montoya, Anarte Gallery, San Antonio, Texas, July 2022.
“38th Annual Juried Artists Exhibition”, Curated by Scott Sherer, University of Texas Main Art Gallery, San Antonio, TX, February 2022.
“Still Standing”, Curated by Jeff F. Wheeler, Space C7 Gallery, San Antonio, TX, July 2021
“Día de Muertos”, Curated by Ana Montoya, Anarte Gallery, San Antonio, Texas, November 2020
“Tejano Festival”, Curated by Alex Rubio, Guadalupe Cultural Center, San Antonio, TX, February 2020
“Metamorphosis”, Curated by José Antonio Vela, Universidad Autónoma de México, San Antonio, TX, December 2015
Selected public & private collections
University Health System, “Salud Arte”, San Antonio, TX, June 2022
Northeast Baptist Hospital, San Antonio, TX, 2018
Legionarios de Cristo, San Antonio, TX, 2019
Color of Healing Survivors of Domestic and Sexual Violence, San Antonio, 2019
CASA, Child Advocates San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, 2019
Texas A&M University-San Antonio, San Antonio, TX, 2019
Selected press
2021 Transnational Press London, “Representation of Violence in Literature, Culture, and Arts”, by Kristy Masten, Istanbul, Turkey 2021.
2021 Revista La Mujer, El Prado Museum and Mariano Fortuny, by Magdalena Guajardo, July 2021
