Mateo Gutiérrez is a contemporary 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. He challenges the viewer with both a haunting and empathetic view of the traumatic effects of the so-called "American way of life" and also what it means to be an outsider as both foreign born and Latino. He cites his complex experience with the United States as central to his understanding of American cultural practices that are defined by racial and socioeconomic hierarchies engendering violence and xenophobia.
Mateo has exhibited nationally in galleries in Los Angeles, New York and Texas, 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 artists in the 2024-2025 Texas Biennial, the longest running state biennial in the US. 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 off 2025. Mateo gave a TEDx talk in 2024 about his series "And I Feel Fine / Y Me Siento Bien". Mateo has a BA in philosophy from the University of California at Berkeley and his MFA in studio painting from the University of Texas at Austin. He lives and works in San Marcos and Austin Texas.
I'm looking at the failed state of American society through the lens of both the actuality of what that means day to day and more largely through the lens of an empire, specifically through the internal and external effects of our violent ways, the ugly modalities that define us through and through, but also not just in actions or laws or cultural narratives, all those things too, but psychologically, fundamentally, asking: Why do we 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? In this respect I feel that 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, in this respect, 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, socially and externally as a nation seems to be violence and the language and practices of war.
EDUCATION
M.F.A. Studio Painting, University of Texas, Austin
B.A. Philosophy, University of California, Berkeley
SELECTED EXHIBITIONS
2026
Textile Art Center, group exhibition (coming July 2026), Brooklyn, NY
Art League Houston, group exhibition (coming January 2026), Houston, TX
2025
Box 13 ArtSpace, solo exhibition (coming February 2025), Houston, TX
2024
Texas Biennial 2024, group exhibition, jurors Erika Mei Chua Holum, Ashley DeHoyos Sauder and Coka Treviño, Sawyer Yards, Houston, TX
2023
La Mecha Contemporary, group exhibition, "A Fine Line", El Paso, Texas
Brownsville Museum of Fine Art, solo exhibition, Brownsville, Texas
Mexic-Arte Museum, group exhibition, Alimento para el Alma / Food for the Soul, Austin, Texas
2022
BronxArtSpace, group exhibition, 5 Artists, "Where Do We All Come From?", Bronx, NY
2021
The Border Gallery, group exhibition, Border Walls IV, Brooklyn, NY
BronxArtSpace, Residency Exhibition, Governors Island, NY
DorDor Gallery, group exhibition, Brooklyn, NY
Shrine Gallery, group exhibition, NY, NY
2020
MOCA Long Island, Night Visions Gallery MOCA L.I.ghts, group exhibition, Patchogue, LI, NY
The Urban Collective & Nasty Women, group exhibition, Rituals of Resistance, New Haven, CT
Field Projects Gallery, group exhibition, Hoarders House, NY, NY
2007
Buckwild Gallery, solo exhibition, Los Angeles, CA
2005
Mexic-Arte Museum, group exhibition, Young Latino Artists, Austin, Texas
Lawndale Art Center, solo exhibition,The Project Room, Houston, Texas
2002
Jones Contemporary, group exhibition, New American Talent, curated by Jerry Saltz, Austin, TX
Austin Museum of Art, group exhibition, 22 to Watch, New Art in Austin, Austin, TX
RESIDENCIES
(Upcoming) September 2025 - June 2026, Textile Art Center, Artist in Residence, Brooklyn, NY
2021 Bronx Art Space Governors Island Residency, NYC
AWARDS & HONORS
2021 Top Ten Studio Picks by NY & LA based curator & writer Angelik Vizcarrondo-Laboy, Gowanus Open Studios
1999 Minority Fellowship Award, University of Texas Austin
1997 Merit Award, University of Texas Austin
SELECTED PRESS
2024
Glasstire, The Last Sky: Thermals and Thresholds, Exhibition Announcement, December issue
Glasstire, Big Medium Announces 2024 Texas Biennial Artists, group exhibition write up, September issue
2023
Glasstire, La Mecha Contemporary, group exhibition write up, August issue
Brownsville Valley Central 23 Channel 4 and Danielle Banda "Valley Por La Vida", TV interview
Glasstire, Brownsville Museum of Fine Art solo exhibition write up, May issue
2022
The Magic Spark Podcast, featured guest, "The Wound of Worthiness & Belonging: Artist Interview"
New American Painting, featured artist, Issue #152 “Northeast”
2021
Hyperallergic, "Your Guide to Explore the Unfamiliar at Gowanus Open Studios"
Mott Haven Herald, "Five Bronx Artists Chosen for Governors Island Residency"
2020
Hyperallergic, “A View From the Easel During Times of Quarantine”
Hartford Courant, “Rituals of Resistance”
Arts Council Greater New Haven, “In Year Four, Nasty Women Returns To Its Roots”
2000
Austin American Statesman, "22 to Watch"
Austin Chronicle, "Behind the Storage Unit Door"
PUBLIC SPEAKING
(Upcoming) February 2026: Artist Talk with Q&A, Art League Houston, Houston, TX
(Upcoming) March 2025: Two Artist Talks with Q&A, University of Guelph & York University, Toronto, Canada
February 2024: TED Talk at Texas State University
May 2023: Solo-exhibition Artist Talk with Q&A at Brownsville Museum of Fine Art
TEACHING
2023-present: Texas State University Department of Art, San Marcos, Texas, Studio Art Lecturer in Art Foundations
2024 Volunteer Youth Art Instructor, Emma S. Barrientos Mexican American Cultural Center, Austin, Texas
1996-1999, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas, Transmedia Teaching Assistant