www.sculpture.dittwald.com:
Beatriz Cortez, Stela Z, after Quirigu (Contrary Warrior), 2023
www.beatrizcortez.com:
Stela Z, after Quirigu (Contrary Warrior) (2023) takes the form of a stela from Quirigu , an ancient Mayan site in present-day Guatemala.
The glyphs on Stela Z represent Ilopango, the Volcano that Left in its many stages of existence and migration, as well as each work in the exhibition as they appear on Museum Hill.
Before it arrived at Storm King, the volcano traveled by container ship across the Atlantic from the Atelier Calder in Sach , France, where Cortez began the work during a residency, to the artist s studio in Los Angeles. From there, it was transported by truck to the Art Center, and finally, will travel up the Hudson River by boat in the fall. Once Ilopango, the Volcano that Left leaves Storm King, the temporality of the Stela will shift, no longer foretelling the Volcano s future movements, but instead documenting the travels of its past.
www.airmail.news:
The multimedia artist Beatriz Cortez immigrated to the U.S. from the capital of El Salvador, San Salvador, when she was 18. Cortez is now 55 and lives in California, where she was awarded an MFA by the California Institute of Arts; she also earned a Ph.D. in Literature and Cultural Studies from Arizona State.
Despite living far from her native land, she remains firmly rooted in its traditions. Cortez is primarily a sculptor whose art examines geological, human, and cosmic situations that relate to the experience of migration.
Indigenous customs, spirituality, and philosophy converge in her monumental works. Throughout the Storm King s grounds, new and recent sculptures by Cortez are on view.
www.beatrizcortez.com:
Stela Z is the latest in the artist s series of steel stelae, which she names out of order to disrupt the alphabetic naming conventions used in colonial archeological practices.
The parenthetical aspect of the artwork s title refers to the Native American concept of a contrary, a warrior who acts in deliberate opposition to those around them, breaking with preconceived notions and moving through time and space like a nomad.
By retooling an ancient architectural form of documenting historical events for the present and an imagined future, Cortez s stela resists linear temporality and opposes a normative narrative interpretation.
www.wikipedia.org:
Beatriz Cortez is a Los Angeles based artist and scholar from El Salvador.
In 2017, Cortez was featured in a science fiction-themed exhibit at University of California, Riverside, and in 2018, her work was shown in the Made in L.A. group artist exhibition at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. She holds a Ph.D in Latin American Literature from Arizona State University. She also earned an M.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts. Cortez currently teaches in the Central American Studies department at California State University, Northridge.
According to Cortez, her work explores 'simultaneity, life in different temporalities and different versions of modernity, particularly in relation to memory and loss in the aftermath of war and the experience of migration'. Cortez has received the 2018 Rema Hort Mann Foundation Fellowship for Emerging Artists, the 2017 Artist Community Engagement Grant, and the 2016 California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Artists. Beatriz Cortez is represented by Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles.
Beatriz Cortez, Stela Z, after Quirigu (Contrary Warrior), 2023
www.beatrizcortez.com:
Stela Z, after Quirigu (Contrary Warrior) (2023) takes the form of a stela from Quirigu , an ancient Mayan site in present-day Guatemala.
The glyphs on Stela Z represent Ilopango, the Volcano that Left in its many stages of existence and migration, as well as each work in the exhibition as they appear on Museum Hill.
Before it arrived at Storm King, the volcano traveled by container ship across the Atlantic from the Atelier Calder in Sach , France, where Cortez began the work during a residency, to the artist s studio in Los Angeles. From there, it was transported by truck to the Art Center, and finally, will travel up the Hudson River by boat in the fall. Once Ilopango, the Volcano that Left leaves Storm King, the temporality of the Stela will shift, no longer foretelling the Volcano s future movements, but instead documenting the travels of its past.
www.airmail.news:
The multimedia artist Beatriz Cortez immigrated to the U.S. from the capital of El Salvador, San Salvador, when she was 18. Cortez is now 55 and lives in California, where she was awarded an MFA by the California Institute of Arts; she also earned a Ph.D. in Literature and Cultural Studies from Arizona State.
Despite living far from her native land, she remains firmly rooted in its traditions. Cortez is primarily a sculptor whose art examines geological, human, and cosmic situations that relate to the experience of migration.
Indigenous customs, spirituality, and philosophy converge in her monumental works. Throughout the Storm King s grounds, new and recent sculptures by Cortez are on view.
www.beatrizcortez.com:
Stela Z is the latest in the artist s series of steel stelae, which she names out of order to disrupt the alphabetic naming conventions used in colonial archeological practices.
The parenthetical aspect of the artwork s title refers to the Native American concept of a contrary, a warrior who acts in deliberate opposition to those around them, breaking with preconceived notions and moving through time and space like a nomad.
By retooling an ancient architectural form of documenting historical events for the present and an imagined future, Cortez s stela resists linear temporality and opposes a normative narrative interpretation.
www.wikipedia.org:
Beatriz Cortez is a Los Angeles based artist and scholar from El Salvador.
In 2017, Cortez was featured in a science fiction-themed exhibit at University of California, Riverside, and in 2018, her work was shown in the Made in L.A. group artist exhibition at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles. She holds a Ph.D in Latin American Literature from Arizona State University. She also earned an M.F.A. from the California Institute of the Arts. Cortez currently teaches in the Central American Studies department at California State University, Northridge.
According to Cortez, her work explores 'simultaneity, life in different temporalities and different versions of modernity, particularly in relation to memory and loss in the aftermath of war and the experience of migration'. Cortez has received the 2018 Rema Hort Mann Foundation Fellowship for Emerging Artists, the 2017 Artist Community Engagement Grant, and the 2016 California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Artists. Beatriz Cortez is represented by Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles.