SMU Meadows School of the Arts
6101 Bishop Avenue
Dallas, TX 75205
Minerva Cuevas (b. 1975, Mexico City, Mexico) is a conceptual and socially engaged artist who creates sculptural installations in response to politically charged events. Several of the artist’s works take the form of rebranding campaigns—exhibited as murals and product designs—that question the role corporations play in the management of natural resources, fair labor practices and evolving forms of neo-colonialism. Cuevas finds provocative ways to intervene in public spaces, whether through the deployment of billboards and mural paintings or by hacking public utilities to provide discounted or free services. Cuevas addresses the negative impact that humans have on the environment through sculptures and paintings coated in tar. She is the founder of Mejor Vida Corp. (1998) and the International Understanding Foundation (2016).
At SMU Meadows School of the Arts, Cuevas will work with MFA and BFA students, give lectures about her work and research, and serve as a resource for students interested in engaging with the social dimensions of a tumultuous political climate. Cuevas frequently teaches at SOMA, a program in Mexico City that SMU students have engaged with via a seminar in 2014 that SOMA organized to visit Mexican artists, curators, and exhibitions, and alumni participation in the annual SOMA Summer program.
Her recent solo exhibitions have been presented internationally at venues including Museo de la Ciudad de México, Mexico City, Mexico (2012); Whitechapel Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2010); Van Abbemuseum, Eindhoven, Netherlands (2008); and the Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland (2007). Cuevas’s work has been included in group exhibitions at institutions such as South London Gallery, London, United Kingdom (2015); Museo Jumex, Mexico City, Mexico (2013); Musée d’art moderne de la Ville de Paris, Paris, France (2012); and the KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin, Germany (2010).
About SMU Meadows School of the Arts Division of Art
Undergraduate: The Division of Art provides a challenging environment for the study of studio art within a multi-faceted arts school at a major liberal arts university. We offer a BFA and BA in studio art. Each of our undergraduate degrees is based in an innovative program of Foundation studies and broad experiences in ways of seeing, ways of making, and ways of thinking. We place equal emphasis on the development of our students’ formal, conceptual and critical knowledge. Through studies in art history, critical seminars and directed tutorials, students develop their awareness of the context of art today and its future possibilities.
Graduate: The MFA program offered by the Division of Art at SMU is a two-year program that prepares artists for professional careers as cultural producers. Students who earn the MFA in Art develop a substantial body of work and have a clear intellectual grasp of the broad contexts, historical and current, within which they and their work function. The degree is an intensive period of focused study, terminating with the MFA qualifying exhibition.
SMU offers up to six full graduate fellowships each year supplemented by teaching assistantships. Funds are also available for supplies and travel. This generous bulwark of support is offered to aid students in the development of their art practice so that they can begin their careers unencumbered by debt.
For more information contact Noah Simblist, [email protected], T 214 768 2503
