Ronny Quevedo
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Biography
Ronny Quevedo (b.1981) incorporates and subverts aspects of abstraction, painting, collage, cartography, and sports imagery in a practice spanning installation, drawings, and prints. Deeply engaged with notions of identity and the intersection of mainstream and historically marginalized cultures, Quevedo reenvisions pre- and post-colonial iconographies, offering nuanced examinations of personal and social histories. This recuperation of indigenous languages of abstraction, the revalorization of their associated labor, and the centering of a living connection between contemporary and centuries-old cultural markers remain key to Quevedo’s ongoing practice.
From the materials he uses to the themes he explores, Ronny Quevedo’s work is rooted in an exploration of his own history and identity, initially using his art as a way to understand the lives and experiences of his parents. Quevedo’s father was a professional soccer player in Ecuador and the artist often incorporates the reconstructed and reorganized lines of athletic fields in his work. Similarly, the influence of Quevedo’s mother’s work as a dressmaker is evidenced in his incorporation of mediums like muslin and wax tracing paper. “To me,” says Quevedo, “there is no division of significance; these humble technical materials can be imaginatively and resourcefully transformed. My family history, which contained lots of adaptation, embodies this capacity for transformation.” By contextualizing these materials with ostensibly precious materials like gold and silver leaf, Quevedo invites the viewer to interrogate the simultaneous valuation of certain luxuries and erasure of the artisans who create them.
Beyond contributing to the formal, material, and conceptual elements of his practice, Quevedo’s family histories serve as prompts to consider the political and social implications of how bodies, or groups of bodies, exist and operate in space. “My visual language incorporates topographies that echo the strategies of pathfinding utilized by migrants. The movement of bodies, like those of constellations, posit geography and space as liminal positions, like players in space.” Through his employment of lines, grids, and diagrammatic visuals, Quevedo’s works take on a cartographic quality that not only explores the complex intersections between the personal and the cultural, but offers the possibility of reimagining and reconfiguring geographic and historical positions.
Central to Quevedo’s practice is the incorporation of and reverence for the cultural heritage of the Americas. For Quevedo, pre-Columbian history “is associated with having been conquered and, thus, a sense that its culture exists in a past that is extinct. . . . When I reference Inca or Wari culture in my work, I’m looking into a cultural space and approach whose legacy continues to be influential. This is a conscious decision to resist contemporary notions of minimalism and abstraction as apolitical and asymbolic. Indigenous South American cultures developed their own visual language of abstraction, one that points to a lineage of thought that exists outside of the figurative and the textual, in ways not traditionally acknowledged in the Western art-historical canon.”
Expanding on the histories and possibilities of textiles and papermaking, works such as myself when i am real - sin ti soy nadie (2021) are imbued with an added dimension: a sculptural approach that emphasizes the presence of the physical body. The result of a meticulous process that involves cutting slivers of pattern paper, reassembling them into abstract compositions, and fusing their surface together with gold leaf on muslin, myself when i am real. . . is designed to be doubled over and hung in the exhibition space, so that viewers can interact with both its aesthetically refined surface and its three-dimensional presence. The incorporation of muslin and the positioning as a draped object emphasize the work’s material and conceptual connection to the living legacy of South American textiles, indicating the artist’s increasingly complex and sophisticated elaboration on his core themes.
Quevedo’s work has been the subject of solo exhibitions, including Ronny Quevedo: ule ole allez, Locust Projects, Miami, FL (2022); Ronny Quevedo: offside at the University Art Museum, University of Albany, NY (2022); Ronny Quevedo: at the line, Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, CO (2021); Space of Play, Play of Space, Martin Art Gallery, Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA (2019); no hay medio tiempo / there is no halftime, Queens Museum, NY (2017), traveled to Temple Contemporary, Tyler School of Art and Architecture, Philadelphia, PA (2019); and Home Field Advantage, Casita Maria Center for Arts & Education, the Bronx, NY (2015). Quevedo has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including El Dorado: Myths of Gold, Americas Society/Council of the Americans, New York, NY (2023); Gilded: Contemporary Artists Explore Value and Worth, Weatherspoon Art Museum, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, NC (2022), traveled to Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, TN (2024), and Hood Museum of Art, Dartmouth, Hanover, NH (2024); A New Way to Travel: Delta Air Lines x Queens Museum at LaGuardia Airport, Queens Museum, NY (2022); Lux et Veritas, NSU Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale, FL (2022); ReVisión, Denver Art Museum, CO (2021); Comunidades Visibles: The Materiality of Migration, Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY (2021); Ace: Art on Sports, Promise, and Selfhood, University Art Museum, University of Albany, NY (2019); Pacha, Llacta, Wasichay; Indigenous Space, Modern Architecture, New Art, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2018); The World’s Game: Fútbol and Contemporary Art, Pérez Art Museum, Miami, FL (2018); Monarchs: Brown and Native Contemporary Artists in the Path of the Butterfly, Bemis Center for Contemporary Art, Omaha, NE (2017), traveled to Museum of Contemporary Art North Miami, FL (2018), Blue Star Contemporary and Southwest School of Art, San Antonio, TX (2018), and The Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS (2019); The Socrates Annual, Socrates Sculpture Park, Queens, NY (2017); Open Sessions: Drawings in Context / Field, Queens Museum, NY (2015); Moving, Not Moving, The McKinney Avenue Contemporary, Dallas, TX (2014); 2014 Core Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX (2014); Reading Lists: Artists’ Selections from the MoMA Library Collection, Museum of Modern Art, New York (2013); 2013 Core Exhibition, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, TX (2013); Eyes Off the Flag, Motus Fort, Tokyo (2012); El Museo’s Bienal: The (S) Files 2011, El Museo del Barrio, New York (2011); and How Soon is Now?, The Bronx Museum of the Arts, NY (2008).
Quevedo’s work is in the collections of the Buffalo AKG Art Museum, NY; Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, CO; Denver Art Museum, CO; Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia; and Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY. He is the recipient of many awards and grants, including the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Biennial Grant (2022); Joan Mitchell Fellowship (2021); Harpo Foundation New Work Project Grant (2021); Jerome Hill Artists Fellowship (2019); A Blade of Grass Fellowship for Socially Engaged Art (2017); Socrates Sculpture Park Artist Fellowship (2017); Queens Museum / Jerome Foundation Fellowship for Emerging Artists (2016); Eliza Long Prize, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (2014 & 2013); New American Paintings MFA Annual 99 (2012); BRIO Award, Bronx Council on the Arts (2011); Gloucester Landscape Painting Prize, Yale School of Art (2011); and PRINT Magazine Regional Design Annual (2008). He currently lives and works in The Bronx, NY.
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Exhibitions
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Ronny Quevedo
Composite Portals 27 April - 15 June 2024 New YorkAlexander Gray Associates, New York presents Ronny Quevedo: Composite Portals, the artist’s second solo exhibition with the Gallery. Positioning Andean textiles as conduits between the precolonial past and our postcolonial...Read more -
Ronny Quevedo
entre aquí y allá 8 September - 15 October 2022 New YorkAlexander Gray Associates, New York presents Ronny Quevedo: entre aquí y allá, the Gallery’s first exhibition of the artist’s work. Featuring a new sculpture and works on muslin and paper,...Read more
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Public Collections
Baltimore Museum of Art, MD
Buffalo AKG Art Museum, NY
Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College, CO
Denver Art Museum, CO
Minneapolis Institute of Art, MN
Museum of Old and New Art, Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, NY -
Videos
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Ronny Quevedo on "Pacha Cosmopolitanism Overtime"
Queens Museum x Delta Air Lines 1 June 2022Delta Air Lines, in collaboration with Queens Museum, has commissioned six permanent art installations from renowned artists Mariam Ghani, Rashid Johnson, Aliza Nisenbaum, Virginia Overton,...Watch -
Ronny Quevedo on "Space of Play, Play of Space"
Muhlenberg College 23 September 2019”I would like people to get a sense that they’re seeing something that they recognize while at the same time seeing something that is new...Watch
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News / Events
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Ronny Quevedo and Joan Semmel
Get in the Game at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA) October 19, 2024−February 18, 2025Ronny Quevedo and Joan Semmel is included in the group exhibition, Get in the Game at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, California, on...Read more -
Ronny Quevedo
Movements Toward Freedom at Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver (MCA Denver) September 20, 2024–February 2, 2025Ronny Quevedo is included in the group exhibition, Movements Toward Freedom at Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver (MCA Denver), Denver, Colorado, on view from September...Read more -
Ronny Quevedo: Wall Drawing Series
The Menil Collection September 13, 2024–August 30, 2025The Menil Collection has commissioned New York-based artist Ronny Quevedo (b. 1981) to create the Menil Drawing Institute’s sixth artwork for its ongoing Wall Drawing...Read more -
Ronny Quevedo
Body Maps: Works from the University at Albany Fine Art Collections in Conversation with Past Exhibiting Artists at University Art Museum, University at Albany January 22–April 3, 2024Ronny Quevedo is included in a group exhibition, Body Maps at the University Art Museum in Albany, New York.
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Ronny Quevedo
Spin a Yarn at ANOTHER SPACE November 10, 2023–March 15, 2024Ronny Quevedo is included in a group exhibition, Spin a Yarn at ANOTHER SPACE in New York.
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Ronny Quevedo
Gilded: Contemporary Artists Explore Value and Worth at Hunter Museum of American Art September 22, 2023–January 8, 2024Ronny Quevedo is included in a group exhibition, Gilded: Contemporary Artists Explore Value and Worth at the Hunter Museum of American Art, Chattanooga, Tennessee.
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Ronny Quevedo
El Dorado: Myths of Gold at Americas Society September 6, 2023–May 18, 2024Ronny Quevedo is included in a group exhibition, El Dorado: Myths of Gold at Americas Society, New York.
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Ronny Quevedo
Lux et Veritas at Nova Southeastern University Art Museum, Fort Lauderdale April 2–January 8, 2023Ronny Quevedo's group exhibition Lux et Veritas curated by Bonnie Clearwater at Nova Southeastern University Art Museum Fort Lauderdale in Florida.
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Ronny Quevedo: ule ole allez
Locust Projects November 29, 2022–February 04, 2023Ronny Quevedo's one person exhibition ule ole allez at Locust Projects in Miami, FL.
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Ronny Quevedo
Gilded: Contemporary Artists Explore Value and Worth at Weatherspoon Art Museum September 10, 2022–April 8, 2023Ronny Quevedo included in the group exhibition Gilded: Contemporary Artists Explore Value and Worth at the Weatherspoon Art Museum.
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Ronny Quevedo
A New Way to Travel: Delta Air Lines x Queens Museum at LaGuardia Airport at Queens Museum June 1, 2022–April 16, 2023Ronny Quevedo included in group show A New Way to Travel: Delta Air Lines x Queens Museum at LaGuardia Airport at the Queens Museum, NY with corresponding works on view for permanent installation at LaGuardia Airport.
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In Conversation: Ronny Quevedo and Rodrigo Valenzuela
University Art Museum at University of Albany March 3, 2022Ronny Quevedo in conversation with Rodrigo Valenzuela, another exhibiting artist at the University Art Museum at the University of Albany, NY.
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Ronny Quevedo
Alexander Gray Associates 2 February 2022Alexander Gray Associates announces representation of Ronny Quevedo (b.1981). Quevedo’s practice spans installation, drawings, and prints, incorporating and subverting aspects of abstraction, painting, collage, cartography, and sports imagery.
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Ronny Quevedo
ReVisión: Art in the Americas at Denver Art Museum October 24, 2021–July 17, 2022Ronny Quevedo included in the group exhibition ReVisión: Art in the Americas at the Denver Art Museum in Denver, CO.
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Articles / Reviews
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Go to the New La Guardia for the Art
Curbed14 June 2023 Bookending the other end of the atrium is a monumental wall installation by Bronx native Ronny Quevedo called Pacha Cosmopolitanism... Read more -
Reflections of Time & Place
Metropolitan Airport News10 May 2023 Ronny Quevedo’s, Pacha Cosmopolitanism Overtime incorporates the floors of gymnasiums that are painted in a way that draws a parallel... Read more -
Your Concise Guide to Miami Art Week
Hyperallergic28 November 2022 As some of us recall with a distinct mix of nostalgia and discomfort, the bar for peak Miami-ness was set... Read more -
Your Guide to the Best Events at Miami Art Week and Art Basel 2022
W Magazine23 November 2022 Ronny Quevedo at Locust Projects When: Beginning November 29 Where: Locust Projects gallery, 3852 N Miami Ave. What to Expect:... Read more -
Defiantly at Home: Latinx Artists in the Borderlands
Art in America21 November 2022 Photojournalism from the US-Mexico border currently emphasizes stark, divisive images: walls, fences, surveillance devices, border patrols, “coyotes,” and crossing migrants.... Read more -
5 Latinx Artists Using Abstraction to Address Precolonial Histories
Artsy6 October 2022 In her article “Witnessing the In-visibility of Inca Architecture in Colonial Peru” (2007), Stella Nair describes how 16th-century Spanish colonists... Read more -
Video: Ronny Quevedo: entre aquí y allá
The Brooklyn Rail20 September 2022 Artist Ronny Quevedo joins Rail Editor-At-Large Jason Rosenfeld for a conversation. We conclude with a poetry reading by Amish Trivedi.... Read more -
NSU Art Museum’s “Lux et Veritas” Brings Plenty of Light & Truth
Boca Raton Magazine22 July 2022 The artists in “Lux et Veritas,” an exciting exhibition at the NSU Art Museum in Fort Lauderdale, share two things... Read more -
LaGuardia Airport's New Terminal Will Boast a $12 Million USD Art Initiative
Hypebeast3 June 2022 There are very few places on Earth that muster the wide range of emotions found at the airport. Excitement, dread,... Read more -
New York’s LaGuardia Airport Unveils New Permanent Artworks by Mariam Ghani, Rashid Johnson, and Others
artnet News2 June 2022 For the second time in as many years, New York has opened a new, state-of-the-art terminal at Queens’s formerly decrepit... Read more -
The Renovated LaGuardia Airport Abounds With Artwork
Surface Magazine2 June 2022 LaGuardia has long been considered the armpit of New York’s airports. President Joe Biden famously compared its decrepit facilities to... Read more -
From Latinx artists to new takes on Surrealism, curator Marcela Guerrero’s favourite works at Frieze New York
The Art Newspaper19 May 2022 Marcela Guerrero, an associate curator at the Whitney Museum of American Art, is spearheading two major exhibitions this year: No... Read more -
Latinx artists finally get New York recognition
Financial Times12 May 2022 It seems as though everywhere one looks in New York City, Latinx artists are making their mark. In April, El... Read more -
Down the Line
Art in America9 May 2022 “Lineage” might bring to mind bloodlines, family trees, inherited customs, and archives indicating how an individual relates to a larger... Read more -
'Offside' at UAlbany a personal, cultural exhibit
Times Union28 February 2022 For the artist Ronny Quevedo, whose family moved from Ecuador to New York when he was just a year old,... Read more -
Six NY artists to create art installations for LaGuardia Airport's new terminal
Telemundo 4722 February 2022 New York has selected six world-renowned artists to create permanent art installations at the new $4 billion Terminal C at... Read more -
On Exhibit: Unseen labor cleverly highlighted in UAlbany works
The Daily Gazette26 January 2022 “Ronny Quevedo: offside,” one of the latest exhibits to open at the University Art Museum, is deceptively sparse on first... Read more -
Ronny Quevedo: at the line
DARIA19 November 2021 The show currently on view in the Central and South El Pomar Galleries at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center... Read more -
Colorado Springs Fine Arts center Museum to present Quevedo exhibit Oct. 1
Fox 21 News26 August 2021 COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. — Ronny Quevedo’s art is coming to the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center at Colorado College in... Read more -
Editors’ Picks: 21 Things Not to Miss in New York’s Art World This Week
artnet News24 February 2020 16. “Metallica ” at Foxy Production Don’t get the wrong idea: this is not a show about James Hetfield, Lars... Read more -
Looking at Sports as Powerful Modes of Expression
Hyperallergic19 August 2019 ALBANY, New York — More than a few associations come to mind with Kevin Beasley’s “Rose” (2017). The installation includes... Read more -
'ACE' exhibit at University at Albany art museum
Times Union25 July 2019 Most of the work on display in 'ACE: art on sports, promise, and selfhood' at the University Art Museum at... Read more -
Spring Gallery Guide: Brooklyn
The New York Times26 April 2019 Like so much else in Brooklyn these days, the art scene there seems to be in flux. Galleries that were... Read more -
Making Space: Ronny Quevedo Interviewed by Louis Bury
BOMB Magazine22 April 2019 Ronny Quevedo’s work uses abstraction to address personal and political themes with suggestive intricacy. His drawings, prints, and installations scramble... Read more -
What to See in New York Art Galleries This Week
The New York Times13 September 2018 ‘Pacha, Llaqta, Wasichay’ Through Sept. 30. Whitney Museum of American Art, 99 Gansevoort Street, Manhattan; 212-570-3600, whitney.org . Modernism, as... Read more -
Latinx Artists Are Highlighted for the First Time in a Group Show at the Whitney
Hyperallergic28 August 2018 Pacha, Llaqta, Wasichay: Indigenous Space, Modern Architecture, New Art , curated by Marcela Guerrero, along with curatorial project assistant Alana... Read more -
A Vision of US Immigration Beyond the Melting Pot
Hyperallergic7 August 2017 Ronny Quevedo ’s no hay medio tiempo / there is no halftime exhibition at the Queens Museum revolves around a... Read more -
Ronny Quevedo’s Field of Play
Hyperallergic8 July 2017 In his classic 1938 study of play in human culture, Homo Ludens, Dutch anthropologist Johan Huizinga draws a parallel between... Read more -
Critics' Picks: Harold Mendez and Ronny Quevedo
Artforum22 September 2015 A small copper reproduction of a pre-Columbian death mask rests inside a burned cardboard box. This tableau is the opening... Read more
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