Celia Álvarez Muñoz (born 1937) is ÁlvarezMuña Chicana mixed-media conceptual artist and photographer based in Arlington, Texas.
Early life and education
Álvarez Muñoz was born in El Paso, Texas to Enriqueta Limón Alvarez and Francisco Pompa Alvarez. She grew up in the Chihuahuita historical neighborhood of El Paso. Prior to becoming an artist, Álvarez Muñoz worked as a fashion illustrator and an elementary school art educator. She decided to commit to creating art in the 1970s, by 1977 she enrolled in graduate school to study art. She earned her Masters of Fine Arts at North Texas State University, Denton.
Drawing on her experiences living near the US-Mexico border, Álvarez Muñoz's work addresses the tension between linguistic, cultural, and political worlds. She often incorporates themes of family and "communal memories" in her work. She uses text and images in her work to explore the ambiguous signs and signifiers where cultures meet, and to communicate stories of American history, culture, and society. She has exhibited her work in museums and galleries in the U.S. and abroad, and is included in the collection of the Museum of New Mexico. Her work has been written about by art historians, Lucy Lippard, Benito Huerta, and others. In Roberto Tejada's monograph on Muñoz, he includes a teaching guide (Vol. 3) using principles from her work in the teaching of multicultural art, and border issues.
Selected solo exhibitions
1988 – The Lannan Museum, Lake Worth, Florida
1989 – New Langton Arts, San Francisco
1989 – Bridge Center for Contemporary Art, El Paso, Texas
1994 – "A Brand New Ball Game", Capp Street Project, San Francisco
1991– "Concentrations 26: Celia Alvarez Munoz, Abriendo Tierra/Breaking Ground", Dallas Museum of Art
Selected group exhibitions
Álvarez Muñoz has exhibited at; 1991 – Whitney Biennial of American Art, New York City 1992 – Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego 2002 – "Stories Your Mother Never Told You" (traveling retrospective), Blue Star ArtSpace, El Paso Museum of Art, and Mexic-Arte Museum 2006–2007 – "Frontera 450+", Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston, Texas 2009 – "Chicana Badgirls: Las Hociconas", 516 ARTS, Albuquerque, New Mexico 2009 – "Rastros y Crónicas: Mujerez de Juarez", National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, Illinois 2012 – "Artifactual Realities", Station Museum of Contemporary Art, Houston, Texas 2014 – "Unbound: Contemporary Art After Frida Kahlo", Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (MCA)
References
Further reading
Roberto Tejada, Celia Alvarez Muñoz, University of Minnesota Press, 2009.