International Residency
United States
Puerto Rico
Image: Mateo Gutiérrez, 'And I Feel Fine / Y Me Siento Bien (#8)', 2025-2026, hand-embroidered thread, acrylic paint, oil pastel, colored pencil, marker, lottery tickets, candy and other food wrappers on tear away stabilizer and found scrap materials.
I use embroidery thread to depict the violence of American society.
Immigrating to the United States at sixteen shaped my perspective as a perpetual outsider. My practice investigates the structural violence of imperial power, focusing on the emotional trauma and psychological wreckage of the American empire. More human inquiry than political argument, my work challenges the modern spectacle of suffering consumed endlessly through screens.
I utilize hand-embroidery to create cognitive dissonance, deploying a medium tied to domestic warmth to depict devastating trauma. The immense, visible labor of stitching stands in direct opposition to the fast, automated violence of modern warfare. By addressing these generational wounds, pain handed down like carefully stitched threads, I aim to pierce imperial illusions and provoke an awakening toward global solidarity.
Mateo Gutiérrez utilizes hand-embroidery and video to interrogate the violence and socioeconomic hierarchies endemic to American life, subverting modern media to confront marginalized histories.
He holds a BA from UC Berkeley and an MFA from UT Austin. Curated by Jerry Saltz and Abraham Thomas, his work was featured in the 2025 Texas Biennial and exhibited at the Austin, Mexic-Arte, and Brownsville Museums of Art. A former Texas State University lecturer and 2024 TEDx speaker, he has lectured at Fordham, York, and Guelph Universities. Profiled in *Hyperallergic*, *New American Paintings*, and *Glasstire*, his residencies include BronxArtSpace, the Textile Arts Center, Arts14C, and the NARS Foundation (Fall 2026). He lives in Brooklyn, NY.
