Tanya Aguiñiga

Tanya Aguiñiga (born 1978, in San Diego,[1] California) is a Los Angeles-based artist, designer, and activist.

Tanya Aguiñiga
Born1978
San Diego, California
Known forcraft, design, furniture, textile arts, sculpture, site-specific art
AwardsUnited States Artists Target Fellow in the field of Crafts and Traditional Arts; National Association of Latino Arts and Cultures and Creative Capital Grant Awardee; 2018 Johnson Fellowship for Artists Transforming Communities

Early life and education

Although she was born in the United States, Aguiñiga spent her childhood living in Tijuana, Mexico. From ages 4 to 18, she travelled several hours daily across the border to attend school in San Diego, an experience that would influence her later life and work.[1] She went on to receive a BA in Applied Design from San Diego State University and an MFA in furniture design from Rhode Island Institute of Design.[2]

Art and design career
Metabolizing the Border (2018-2020) by Tanya Aguiñiga at the Renwick Gallery in Washington, DC in 2022

Aguiñiga began designing furniture in 1997 while she was still an undergraduate student.[3] Her first design job was working as a designer and fabricator off-camera for the DIY Network show called Freeform Furniture.[3] Throughout her career, Aguiñiga's work has taken many forms but remains generally textile-centric, often combining modern design with elements of traditional craft technique and activism.[4] Using a range of natural materials from beeswax to wool to human hair, Aguiñiga crafts furniture, textiles, wearable pieces, sculptures, and site-specific installations. In addition to designing furniture, jewelry, and other small scale pieces, she has extended her design mediums to fiber and creates weavings with materials such as woven jute, wool, silk, and cotton. She manages a team of nearly all female assistants in the creation of large format wall , woven hangings, by commission.[5]

Aguiñiga's work has been featured in the PBS series Craft in America[6] and in a 2011 site-specific exhibition at the Craft and Folk Art Museum,[7][8] among many other venues. Fashion designer Ulla Johnson, commissioned a piece by Aguiñiga for her shop in New York.[9]

From July 23 through September 17, 2016, Aguiñiga's "Teetering of the Marginal" accompanied pieces by Lenore Tawney and Loie Hollowell in a gallery exhibit titled 3 Women. The 1977 film 3 Women, written and directed by Robert Altman and starring Shelley Duvall, Sissy Spacek, and Janice Rule, provided inspiration to The Landing to gather the artists for the exhibit.[10]

In May through October 2018 Aguiñiga had a solo exhibition of her work at the Museum of Arts and Design in New York City titled "Tanya Aguiñiga: Craft and Care". The show prominently featured her project AMBOS ("Art Made Between Opposite Sides"), that addresses life on the Mexican-American border. In Spanish "ambos" means both and according to the project's website the mission of AMBOS is to "express and document border emotion through art made on opposite sides by providing a platform to bi-national artists along the border."[11] Her work was also featured in Disrupting Craft: Renwick Invitational 2018 at the Smithsonian American Art Museum's Renwick Gallery.[12]

In 2021, Aguiñiga received the 26th Annual Heinz Award for the Arts.[13]

In early 2022, Aguiñiga lead a social justice focused BIPOC Exchange at the newly reopened Frieze Los Angeles.[14][15]

Aguiñiga, along with fourteen other artists of Latin American and Caribbean descent, was named Latinx Artists Fellows in 2022.[15][16] The fellowship provides $50,000 and was funded by the Ford Foundation and the Mellon Foundation and the result of a collaboration of the US Latinx Art Forum and the New York Foundation of the Arts.[15]

Aguiñiga's work was also featured in the Armory Show in 2022 as it moved to the Javits Center.[17][18]

Her work, Metabolizing the Border, was acquired by the Smithsonian American Art Museum as part of the Renwick Gallery's 50th Anniversary Campaign.[19]

Activism

Aguiñiga is responsible for multiple "performance crafting" happenings, including tying herself to the Beverly Hills sign and weaving while wearing traditional Mexican garments.[4]

Having grown up on the U.S./Mexico boarder, Aguiñiga uses her life experiences in connection with her craft practice to promote collective creation within communities, spearheading art-based advocacy projects including the Border Art Workshop/Taler de Arte Fronterizo in Maclovio Rojas, Mexico, and AMBOS (Art Made Between Opposite Sides), spanning the US-Mexico border, which seeks to document the emotions of commuters crossing it and gives voice to bi-national artists.[20]

Collections

References
  1. Lovelace, Joyce (April–May 2011). "Artist Without Borders". American Craft: 49–55.
  2. "Tanya Aguiniga". Dwell on Design. Archived from the original on 27 June 2013. Retrieved 12 March 2015.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  3. Currey, Mason (20 January 2015). "Tanya Aguiñiga on Designing Outside Your Own Reality and Using Craft as a Way to Diversify Conversations in Society". Core77. Archived from the original on 3 December 2021. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  4. Tewksbury, Drew (12 October 2012). "Craft Happening: Tanya Aguiñiga Vs. the Beverly Hills Police". 15 November 2022. KCET. Archived from the original on 28 June 2022. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  5. Furth, Oliver M. (Winter 2016). "Tanya Aguiñiga Is an Art-World Dream Weaver". Galerie. Archived from the original on 17 September 2021. Retrieved 3 March 2018.
  6. "Tanya Aguiñiga". Craft in America. Archived from the original on 22 January 2022. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  7. "Crossing the Line: A Space by Tanya Aguiñiga". Craft Contemporary. 2011. Archived from the original on 17 May 2022. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
  8. Lauria, Jo; Gluckman, Dale Carolyn (2011). "Crossing the Line: A Space by Tanya Aguiñiga" (PDF). Craft & Folk Art Museum. Archived from the original (PDF) on 30 March 2019. Retrieved 12 March 2015.
  9. Phelps, Nicole (20 March 2017). "Ulla Johnson's New Bleecker Street Shop Is Just as Beautiful as You'd Expect". Vogue. Archived from the original on 19 May 2022. Retrieved 25 March 2017.
  10. Kimmel, Erin (October 1, 2016). "3 Women: The Landing". Artforum International. 55 (2): 277. Retrieved 30 March 2019.
  11. "Mission". AMBOS Project. Archived from the original on 25 May 2022. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
  12. "Disrupting Craft: Renwick Invitational 2018". Smithsonian American Art Museum. 2018. Archived from the original on 23 September 2022. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
  13. "Tanya Aguiñiga". The Heinz Awards. 2021. Archived from the original on 20 May 2022. Retrieved 18 November 2021.
  14. Solomon, Tessa (18 February 2022). "At Frieze L.A., BIPOC Exchange is Making Space for Social Justice". ARTnews. Archived from the original on 11 November 2022. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
  15. Velie, Elaine (15 May 2022). "15 Latinx Artist Fellows Receive $50K Grants". Hyperallergic. Archived from the original on 19 August 2022. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
  16. Durón, Maximilíano (12 May 2022). "Ford, Mellon Foundations Name 2022 Winners of $50,000 Latinx Artist Fellowships, Including Amalia Mesa-Bains, Las Nietas de Nonó". ARTnews. Archived from the original on 31 May 2022. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
  17. Urist, Jacoba (6 September 2022). "5 Can't-Miss Latin American and Latinx Artists at the 2022 Armory". Cultured. Archived from the original on 6 September 2022. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
  18. Cullen, Kathleen (9 September 2022). "Standouts at Armory's Focus 2022: "Landscape Undone"". Art & Object. Archived from the original on 5 October 2022. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
  19. Savig, Mary; Atkinson, Nora; Montiel, Anya (2022). This Present Moment: Crafting a Better World. Washington, DC: Smithsonian American Art Museum. pp. 228–238. ISBN 9781913875268.
  20. "Tanya Aguiñiga - Meet the Artists of Disrupting Craft: Renwick Invitational 2018". Smithsonian American Art Museum. 2018. Archived from the original on 4 October 2022. Retrieved 9 March 2019.
  21. "Tanya Aguiñiga - Mend". The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. Archived from the original on 31 July 2021. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
  22. "Tanya Aguiñiga". Los Angeles County Museum of Art. Archived from the original on 19 November 2022. Retrieved 19 November 2022.
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