Installation view of Hulda Guzmán: They come from water (May 24-July 5, 2023) at Alexander Berggruen, NY.
Hulda Guzmán (b. 1984, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic) depicts her tropical surroundings as she explores perspective and reality. Situated between Impressionistic landscape, psychological autobiography, Mexican muralism, Caribbean folk traditions, endearing comedy, and magical realism, Guzmán’s work engenders an emphatic compassion for the united forces of the living, celebrated through the act of painting.
Guzmán received a BA from Altos de Chavón School of Design in the Dominican Republic and went on to study photography and mural painting at the National School of Visual Arts, Mexico. Her work is included in the permanent collections of the Baltimore Museum of Art, MD; Dallas Museum of Art, TX; Denver Art Museum, CO; He Art Museum (HEM), Guangdong, CN; Institute of Contemporary Art, Miami, FL; Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), CA; Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP), São Paulo, Brazil; Pérez Art Museum Miami, FL; and San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMOMA), CA, among others. Guzmán has been featured in the Dominican Republic’s pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. Guzmán has shown with Stephen Friedman Gallery, London, UK; Alexander Berggruen, NY; Anat Ebgi, Los Angeles, CA; Dio Horia Gallery, Mykonos; Arte BA, Buenos Aires; Galería Machete, Mexico City; Gallery Ariane Paffrath Dusseldorf; and at institutions such as the Denver Art Museum, CO; Museo de Arte Moderno, Santo Domingo; the Pérez Art Museum Miami, FL; Museo de Arte de São Paulo, Brazil; Museo de Arte y Diseño Contemporáneo, Costa Rica; and Art Museum of the Americas, Washington, DC. The artist lives and works in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Hulda Guzmán in the studio, Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, 2020.
LEVITY
July 13-August 29, 2023
HULDA GUZMÁN: THEY COME FROM WATER
May 24-July 5, 2023
HULDA GUZMÁN: MY FLORA, MY FAUNA
October 23-December 19, 2020
KATHERINE BRADFORD, HULDA GUZMÁN, REBECCA NESS
December 11, 2019-January 29, 2020
FOG DESIGN+ART 2022
ELANA BOWSHER, HULDA GUZMÁN, BRITTNEY LEEANNE WILLIAMS
Fort Mason Center, San Francisco, CA, Booth 206
January 20-23, 2022
Hulda Guzmán spoke with Brainard Carey for the Yale University Radio about her current exhibition Hulda Guzmán: They come from water at Alexander Berggruen, on view through July 5, 2023.
Responding about her use of water in her painting process, Guzmán stated: “I like that you say the word alchemy because it begins with the water, but then it solidifies the pigment into these different shapes and things that are beautiful to me. It’s different when the water conducts the materials instead of just the brushes or myself. I feel like it’s another participant—aside from myself—working on the paintings.”
Who Tells a Tale Adds a Tail is topical, addressing themes like technology, gender, immigration and, most prominently, the lingering impacts of colonialism. The artists, born from 1981 to 1996, have a generational connection, though Mr. Fonseca assembled a lineup with varied ideas and art-making approaches to show U.S. audiences the diversity of the region’s creativity. […] There is traditional painting, including the Dominican artist Hulda Guzmán’s series of lush, acrylic landscapes that examine connections between the human body and nature.
The ICA Miami also bought work by Hulda Guzmán from first-time exhibitor Alexander Berggruen’s booth. “Guzmán is an artist I have been following closely and looking to add a strong example of her work to ICA Miami’s collection. The opportunity arose with the opening of FOG fair,” said ICA Miami director Alex Gartenfeld.
Guzmán’s solo exhibition at Alexander Berggruen is her first in the United States since [the 58th Venice Biennale], and it finds her turning, mostly, to views around her studio, where she was confined during COVID quarantine. It’s a breathtaking retreat. From the artist’s window, palm trees spread out over lush tropical hills. Garden pathways wind through forests where children, birds, and animals peer through thick trees. Guzmán’s work recalls Henri Rousseau’s in its naïve, mystical depictions of forest creatures and foliage. But her most exhilarating landscapes also make me think of Lucas Arruda, who inexplicably transforms the unyielding Brazilian Amazon into placid fields like Mark Rothko paintings. As does Arruda, Guzmán deftly invites a kind spiritual awakening in her vibrant forest scenes.
Tropical vistas, mise-en-abyme effects, and images of a plump cat are among the many lush pleasures in this young Dominican painter’s exhibition “my flora, my fauna,” at the Alexander Berggruen gallery. Guzmán’s colorful works, in acrylic gouache, depict a surreal world in which domestic interiors spill into jungle landscapes.
In Hulda Guzmán’s solo exhibition at Alexander Berggruen in New York, paintings of figures, flora, and fauna from the Dominican Republic depict an artist exploring reality from multiple perspectives. The paintings, at times featuring the artist, her cat, and conjured-up creatures, are large, while the figures within are usually small, basking in the warm hues of the Dominican light. In self-portraits, Guzmán unfolds a scene from various points of view, bringing reflective opportunities to the forefront. As an optimistic response to the anthropocene–an era marked by the effect of humans on the environment–the artist paints nature’s omnipresence in a scale that is overwhelming. A feeling of acuity and gumption is present. After studies at the Chavon School of Design in the Dominican Republic, Guzmán furthered her schooling in photography and mural painting at the National School of Visual Arts in Mexico which layered complexity to her technique. Born in 1984 in Santo Domingo, Guzmán was featured in the Dominican Republic’s pavilion at the 58th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennale. GARAGE caught up with the artist about her current show, while she was at her rural ocean-side studio.
The second show at this new gallery, helmed by a third-generation art dealer, impresses with a trio of exciting painters. Guzmán, who is from the Dominican Republic, paints intricate vistas that nod to Mexican folk art. In “wednesday morning,” an expanse of tropical foliage canopies a crisply detailed scene of tiny figures, some human and others mythic.
On the occasion of Alexander Berggruen’s exhibition Hulda Guzmán: They come from water (May 24-July 5, 2023), we are delighted to share a new editorial feature by artist and critic Andrew Woolbright. As Woolbright considers the “politics of water” at play in Guzmán’s paintings, he finds expressions of love, trust, and hope.
