María Elena González

This biographical article is written like a résumé. Please by revising it to be neutral and encyclopedic. (October 2012)

María Elena González (born 1957 in Havana, Cuba) is a Cuban-American artist best known for her sculptural installations. 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. She currently teaches at the San Francisco Art Institute.

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 the Rome Prize from the American Academy in Rome for 2003–04, and was a 2006 Guggenheim Fellow. In 2013 she won the Grand Prize at the 30th Biennial of Graphic Arts in Ljubljana, Slovenia.^[3]

Selected public exhibitions[]

Selected solo exhibitions[]

• Galerie Gisèle Linder, Basel, Switzerland (2005, 2009)
• Knoedler & Company, New York (2006, 2008)^[4]
• The Project, New York (1999–2006)
• The Contemporary Museum, Honolulu (now the Honolulu Museum of Art Spalding House) (2006)^[5]
• 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[]

• Museum of Latin American Art (2017)^[6]
• Los Angeles County Museum of Art (2017)^[7]
• the Kunstmuseum Solothurn, Switzerland (2008)
• the National Academy Museum & School of Fine Arts, New York (2008)
• the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2007)^[8]
• Miami Art Museum (2005–06)
• P.S. 1 / MoMA Contemporary Art Center, New York (2000, 2003)^[9]

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, Netherlands
• The New School for Social Research, New York
• Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst, Ghent, Belgium.

References[]

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[]

• BOMB magazine interview by Carlos Brillembourg
• Kunstbulletin
• The Brooklyn Rail review of Internal DupliCity at Knoedler & Co. gallery 2006