Catalina Schliebener Muñoz ( b.1980, Santiago, Chile; currently based in Brooklyn, NY) is a Sudamerican, Chilean-born visual artist who works primarily with collage, installation, and murals. Their work draws on images, objects, and narratives associated with childhood and explores gender, sexuality, and class. Their work has been exhibited in Museo de Arte Contemporáneo (Santiago, Chile), Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art (New York, NY), Bronx Museum of the Arts (New York, NY), Children’s Museum of Manhattan (New York, NY), Boston Center for the Arts (Boston, MA), Centro Cultural de España (Santiago, Chile), Centro Cultural Recoleta (Buenos Aires, Argentina), Center for Books Arts (New York, NY), Catalyst Arts (Belfast, Northern Ireland), Tiger Strikes Asteroid (Brooklyn, NY), Hache Galería (Buenos Aires, Argentina), Galería Jardín Oculto (Buenos Aires, Argentina), Galería Metropolitana (Santiago, Chile), and Bureau of General Services—Queer Division (New York, NY), among others.
A recipient of multiple FONDART Grants (Cultural and Arts Development Fund of the Government of Chile), Schliebener Muñoz also received grants from DIRAC (Board of Cultural Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Relations of Chile) and the Foundation for Contemporary Arts (New York, NY). They also received a Queer Artist Fellowship from the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art (2017), and an Artist in the Marketplace (AIM) Fellowship from the Bronx Museum of the Arts (2018). Currently Schliebener Muñoz is an In Situ Fellow (2022-2024) at Queens Museum, NY.
In addition, Schliebener Muñoz has extensive teaching experience, from early childhood education to undergraduate education, on topics ranging from philosophy and art theory to art instruction in schools, studios, and museum settings. They are currently working as a teaching artist with the Leslie-Lohman Museum of Art and they facilitate gender and sexuality trainings for the Early Childhood Professional Development Institute at the City University of New York (CUNY). They received a Bachelor of Philosophy and a Bachelor of Visual Arts from the Universidad de Arte y Ciencias Sociales (ARCIS; Santiago, Chile).
Represented by HACHE GALERÍA in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
For more recent work and process, visit Instagram: @catalina_schliebener
I work primarily with collage, drawings, murals, and installations. The subject matter of my work focuses on everyday images and objects related to childhood. Children’s books, pedagogical objects, costumes, and games are frequent sources of material in my work.
Research is a fundamental part of my practice, as is sourcing material on the street, in secondhand stores, and in lost-and-found bins. The starting point for me is always a found object or image that triggers a series of formal and conceptual connections. The time I spend looking for materials slows and shifts the act of acquisition, forcing constant adaptation, while also introducing accident and surprise into the process, and opening up exchanges with alternative economies. I cut up, reposition, extract details, and erase features of my source materials in order to build collages and installations.
The choice of collage as my primary medium is related to the fact that it is often considered a minor medium within the visual arts. I like its close connection to do-it-yourself crafts and the activities of hobbyists. This practice allows me to make small modifications and alterations in the meaning and use of the objects and images I choose.
I am particularly interested in childhood because in this period the limits between reality and fiction are not yet defined. I intentionally work with material that carries implicit narratives around gender, sexuality, and class. Children’s stories and games are embedded with morals that indirectly teach social and behavioral norms. I seek to draw attention to these norms in order to render them uncanny. My intention with this strategy is to pause or interrupt the narrative, to introduce ambiguity in the face of supposed certainty.
2019 | Orden y Secreto – Hache – text by Nicolas Cuello
2017 | Curveball – text by Ren Ellis Neyra
2017 | Growing Sideways – Hache – Diálogo
2016 | Growing Sideways – BGSQD
2016 | Pin the Tail
2015 | Pony Tail
2015 | Wakefield (twice-told tales)
2014 | Puzzle
2011 | Máquina Blanda
2011 | Érase
2010 | Doble
2010 | Cuentos para la Infancia y el Hogar
2009 | Sinfonías Tontas
2008 | Revista Americana
2008 | Ratonera
2006 | Buuuu
2004 | Boutique
2001 | Showroom
Contact:
catalinaschliebener [at] gmail.com
© 2024 Catalina Schliebener