María Elena González

María Elena González (born 1957 in Havana, Cuba) is a Cuban-American artist best known for her sculptural installations that are architecturally as well as personally informed. In 1999, González received widespread acclaim for her site-specific outdoor sculpture, Magic Carpet/Home. Commissioned by the Public Art Fund, it was originally installed in Brooklyn, New York,^[1] and subsequently in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and Los Angeles, California. In the summer of 2005, González was a resident faculty member at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. In 2005 and 2008, she was also a Visiting Artist faculty member at the Cooper Union School of Art. Her homes and studios are in Brooklyn and at Basel in Switzerland.

Education and awards

González received a BFA in 1979 from Florida International University, and an MA in sculpture in 1983 from San Francisco State University. She had her first solo exhibition in New York in 1991 at the Nuyorican Poets Café. González has been awarded grants from organizations that include the Cintas Foundation (1989, 1994); the Pollock-Krasner Foundation (1991, 1998); Anonymous Was a Woman (1997); the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation (1997); the Joan Mitchell Foundation (1998); the Creative Capital Foundation (1999, 2001);^[2] The Cuban Artists Fund (2000); the Penny McCall Foundation (2001); and the New York State Council on the Arts (2003). She was recipient of a Prix de Rome from the American Academy in Rome for 2003–04, and was a 2006 Guggenheim Fellow.

Selected public exhibitions

Selected solo exhibitions

• Galerie Gisèle Linder, Basel, Switzerland (2005, 2009)
• Knoedler & Company, New York (2006, 2008)^[3]
• The Project, New York (1999–2006)
• The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu (2006)^[4]
• DiverseWorks, Houston, Art Museum of the University of Memphis, Tennessee, and Art in General, New York (2002–03)
• Center for Art and Visual Culture, University of Maryland, Baltimore (2002)
• The Bronx Museum of Art (2002)
• Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE), a Creative Capital Foundation Project, Los Angeles (2002)
• Ludwig Foundation, Havana, Cuba (2000)
• Public Art Fund, Public Art Project, Brooklyn (1999)
• El Museo del Barrio, New York (1996–97).

Selected group exhibitions

• the Kunstmuseum Solothurn, Switzerland (2008)
• the National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts, New York (2008)
• the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2007)^[5]
• Miami Art Museum (2005–06)
• P.S. 1 / MoMA Contemporary Art Center, New York (2000, 2003)^[6]

Public collections

• Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland
• The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu, Hawaii
• Maxine & Stuart Frankel Foundation for Art, Bloomfield Hills, Michigan
• the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York
• Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, Providence
• North Carolina Museum of Art, Raleigh
• Museum Biedermann, Donaueschingen, Germany
• Museum voor Moderne Kunst, Arnhem, The Netherlands
• The New School for Social Research, New York
• Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, Belgium.

References

1. ^ Magic Carpet/Home The Public Art Fund http://www.publicartfund.org/pafweb/realm/99/gonzalez_me_99.htm
2. ^ Creative Capital: Maria Elena Gonzalez: Magic Carpet/Home http://creative-capital.org/projects/view/214
3. ^ Knoedler & Company http://knoedlergallery.com/artists/maria_elena_gonzalez/work1.html
4. ^ The Contemporary Museum Honolulu http://www.tcmhi.org/ex_mhcatalyst-MEG.htm
5. ^ The Shapes of Space-The Guggenheim Museum, New York http://pastexhibitions.guggenheim.org/shapes/audio.html
6. ^ P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center presents Site and Insight: an Assemblage of Artists, a group exhibition curated by Agnes Gund http://ps1.org/exhibitions/view/196

Selected bibliography

• Brillembourg, Carlos "Maria Elena González," Bomb (Winter 2002-03)
• Chadwick, Whitney Maria Elena González: Suspension. New York: Knoedler & Company, 2008
• Cotter, Holland "Maria Elena González," The New York Times (January 20, 2006)
• Durant, Mary Alice Maria Elena González: Selected Works, 1996–2002. Baltimore: Center for Art, Design and Visual Culture, University of Maryland, 2002
• Heartney, Eleanor Maria Elena González: Internal DupliCity. New York: Knoedler & Company, 2006
• Princenthal, Nancy, et al. UnReal Estates: Maria Elena González. Houston: DiverseWorks, 2002
• Schwendener, Martha "Maria Elena González: Art in General," Artforum (January 2004)

External links

• Maria Elena González is represented in New York by Knoedler & Company
• BOMB magazine interview by Carlos Brillembourg
• Kunstbulletin
• The Brooklyn Rail review of Internal DupliCity at Knoedler & Co. gallery 2006

Persondata
Name	Gonzalez, Maria Elena
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Date of birth	1957
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