Bio / Statement

Cecilia Beaven

reflects the ludic development of a personal mythology. Beaven’s work extends beyond the two dimensions of the canvas and transforms the pictorial into the cinematic and scenographic. Beaven draws on her life in Mexico City and her mythological, ethnographic and introspective explorations to create a narrative in which intriguing and absurd mythical creatures and landscapes make us aware of the fictional nature of the artist’s world, staging a monstrous, fragile and introspective setting.

BIO

Cecilia Beaven is a visual artist and art instructor from Mexico City, based in Chicago. Cecilia holds an MFA in Studio from SAIC which she coursed as a Fulbright scholar and a BFA with honors from ENPEG La Esmeralda (Mexico City). Cecilia’s multidisciplinary artwork has been shown in solo shows in Mexico City, Houston, and Chicago, as well as in group exhibitions in Mexico, the US, Colombia, Sweden, Italy, and Japan. She has painted murals in several cities such as Hiketa, Paris, Houston, Chicago, Mexico City, Oaxaca, Pachuca, Tepoztlan, and Tijuana, where she was commissioned to paint a segment of the border wall between Mexico and the US.

Through her work, which includes painting, drawing, animation, film, and sculpture, Cecilia develops a speculative mythology with unique visual narratives. Cecilia questions who gets to tell stories and establish the official cultural narratives. The artist affirms her creative agency by modifying existing tales and mythology and seamlessly adding fiction and personal anecdotes. Through this analytical and ludic experimentation, Cecilia brings a unique perspective on Mexican identity that goes beyond folklore and mainstream ideas of Mexico.

In 2019 Cecilia was awarded the Leroy Neiman Foundation Fellowship at Ox-Bow School of Art, in Saugatuck, Michigan. In 2020 Cecilia was invited as a resident at the Mono Rojo Ceramics workshop in Mexico City. In 2021, Cecilia was awarded the year-long Radicle Studio Residency at Hyde Park Art Center in Chicago.