Land Art Week: Art Talk with Kimball Arts

Sight and Sound Attend an Art Talk with artist Porfirio Gutiérrez at the Kimball Arts Center! Learn more about Land Art Week The Kimball Arts Center invites Land Art Week visitors to attend an Art Talk with Porfirio Gutiérrez. Porfirio Gutiérrez is a Zapotec American textile artist based in Ventura, California. He uses traditional Zapotec technology of dyes and materials and redefines Zapotec weaving language to create works that communicates contemporary experiences and the complexity of the Americas today. Gutiérrez's expertise is based on a family legacy of treadle loom weaving and ancestral knowledge of his homeland, its organic materials, and their seasonal cycles that result in an unlimited palette of natural colors. He departs from traditional woven motifs in his compositions, exploring the boundaries of his own creative expression and distinct experiences. Through his practice, he asks us to rethink narrow definitions of contemporary art and Indigeneity. While in Zapotec there is no word for artist as an occupation, there is a long held concept of valuing those who hold wisdom within their community. Gutiérrez's interpretation of ancestral weaving techniques and motifs opens a new dialogue in the imposed dialectic of art versus craft, which he sees as serving little purpose in furthering contemporary Indigenous creative expression. Breaking with that tradition is where he finds ultimate freedom as an artist.  An internationally known and exhibited artist, Gutiérrez has taught materials and color at Harvard University, and serves as Fellowships Advisory for the Smithsonian. His work is in the collection of LACMA, Los Angeles County Museum, the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian, and the Tucson Museum of Art. A selection of his dye materials was also documented and added to Harvard Art Museums' Forbes Pigment Collection, the world-renowned archive of artist materials. In 2015, he received the Smithsonian Institution's Artist in Leadership fellow, in 2021 he received the Carolyn Glasoe Bailey Foundation Art Prize, and in 2023 he was the finalist for Frieze Art Prize. His work has been covered by ARTnews, The New York Times, PBS, the BBC, Vogue, and Artforum. Gutiérrez's work will be on view in the exhibition that opens at the Kimball on September 25. This event takes place at the Kimball Arts Center1251 Kearns Blvd, Park City, UT 84060 Visit The Kimball Arts Center Header Image: Photo of Porfirio Gutiérrez. Photo credit Joe Coca, courtesy of the artist and Kimball Arts Center. You May Also like Land Art Week: UMOCA Tour Tour Time, Truth and Other Immeasurables at the Utah Museum of Contemporary Art! The Utah Museum of Contemporary Art invites Land Art Week visitors to take part in a director & curator-Led tour of Time, Truth, and Other Immeasurables. This major group exhibition exploring dimensions of experience that resist calculation--time, truth, vastness, spirituality, and deep time.... Learn More Land Art Week Artist Talk: Lita Albuquerque Learn more about Land Art in Utah! Dive into the conversation around Land art with the Utah Museum of Fine Arts! Utah's striking landscape has inspired artists for centuries, from the ancient people who carved petroglyphs in rock, to the pioneers who surveyed grand vistas with photography and plein air paintings, to the Land artists of the... Learn More