Celebrating the Arts | Cecilia Vicuña: NYC-based Artist and Poet

The New York City area is full of talented artists whose work reflects the diverse and rich communities, ideas, and lives around us. Broadway Stages is committed to promoting these individuals and their talents so a wider audience can enjoy their creativity and passion.

Artist and poet Cecilia Vicuña at Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Chile. This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International license - Source.

In this edition of our Celebrating the Arts series, we shine the spotlight on Cecilia Vicuña, a multi-talented, prolific artist, poet, filmmaker, and activist based in New York City, hailing from Santiago, Chile. Ms. Vicuña’s work brings attention to critical issues facing our planet and society, using various creative modalities to examine topics such as “ecological destruction, human rights, and cultural homogenization.” New Yorkers will have a chance to experience her work at the upcoming (September 25) Insectageddon festival that will focus on the threats insects face around the world, and will feature interdisciplinary and interactive performances, poetry readings, workshops, and more at various locations across the city, as part of the High Line’s annual Horticulture Celebration. Ms. Vicuña’s body of work is vast and brings to those who experience her art a unique South American perspective, infused with indigenous themes and messages, and affected by the political turmoil experienced in her native Chile, as well as a deep concern for the state of our natural resources. This can be seen in her weavings (quipus), based on ancient Incan writing systems, and heard in her sound recordings that combine or morph words from various languages, including Quechua, Mapuche, and Spanish. Her work defies convention, as she creates lo precario (or precarious works) that move from one form of expression to another. As she describes on her website’s biography page, they can “…begin as a poem, an image that morphs into a film, a song, a sculpture, or a collective performance…that bridge the gap between art and life, the ancestral and the avant-garde.”

Ms. Vicuña’s work has been exhibited around the world, from North and South America, to Europe and Asia. She has also received international recognition, including being awarded the prestigious Velázquez Prize for Plastic Arts (Premio Velázquez de Artes Plásticas) in 2019 by Spain’s Ministry of Culture. The prize is “given…to a creator for their entire body of work, in recognition of their contribution to Spanish and Spanish-American culture in the field of plastic arts.” And, in 2020, she was a finalist for the Hugo Boss Prize, which “honors outstanding achievement in contemporary art, celebrating the work of remarkable artists whose practices are among the most innovative and influential of our time.” Hear Ms. Vicuña describe her creative process and see examples of her art on this Guggenheim Museum nominee profile video.

Read more about Cecilia Vicuña and her art, poetry, sound recordings, and films on her website. Also see this recent piece in Galerie; and articles on Arte Al Limite and ARTnews.

Mark Your Calendar

Insectageddon | September 25

And don’t miss A Monarch’s Journey — as we previously announced, this event will be part of Insectageddon festival, with performances curated by CreateArt and presented by our partners NOoSPHERE Arts and Newtown Creek Alliance. This immersive dance and music performance will begin at our own garden rooftop — Kingsland Wildflowers at Broadway Stages.