CERLAC Presents: Thread of Violence: It’s the End of the World as We Know It. An Artist’s Hope for the Future of Humanity

Thursday, March 13, 2025

12:30pm – 2:00pm

Kaneff Tower 626

York University

Mateo Gutiérrez is a contemporary artist who makes hand-embroidered artworks that bring into question the underlying culture of violence endemic to American life both personally, politically and historically. In this presentation, Mateo presents both a sociopolitical and a deeply personal reflection on what it means to be American through his most recent work juxtaposing images of people coming across the US-Mexico border with people in the aftermath of mass shootings. He looks at common physical gestures of pain, fear and sorrow resulting from these traumatizing experiences to open a discussion about the state of American society at its most personal and human level. In his talk, Mateo will walk people through the genesis of the series “And I Feel Fine / Y Me Siento Bien” begun in 2019 and the experience he hopes to create for viewers of his work and why.

Mateo Gutierrez moved to the U.S. at the age of sixteen and has struggled with his conflicted relationship to the U.S. ever since.  Mateo has exhibited nationally in galleries in Los Angeles, New York and Texas, including multiple museum exhibitions: the Austin Museum of Art, MexicArte Museum and a solo exhibition at the Brownsville Museum of Fine Art in 2023. Mateo is a featured artists in the 2024-2025 Texas Biennial, the longest running state biennial in the US. Mateo has been featured in New American Painters, Hyperallergic, the Austin American Statesman, The Hartford Courant, Glasstire and other notable journals. Mateo was a resident in the Bronx Art Space Governors Island Residency on Governors Island New York City in 2021 and will be starting a residency in Brooklyn NY at the Textile Art Center in the Fall off 2025. Mateo gave a TEDx talk in 2024 about his series "And I Feel Fine / Y Me Siento Bien". Mateo has a BA in philosophy from the University of California at Berkeley and his MFA in studio painting from the University of Texas at Austin. He lives and works in San Marcos and Austin Texas.

Jasmin Hristov: Is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and the Guelph Institute of Development Studies. Prior to joining the University of Guelph, she was Assistant Professor of Global Sociology at UBC Okanagan. Her research expertise is in the areas of development and conflict, political violence, non-state armed groups, economic globalization, agrarian movements, and gender violence.