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A headshot of a Latinx person of Mexican-American descent wearing a serape poncho posing in front of a yellow wall. His face is slightly tilted back, and he is wearing a gold septum piercing and staring directly at the viewer.

Photo courtesy of the artist.

Artists

Luis Alvaro Sahagun Nuño

He // Him // His

Interdisciplinary Artist and Ritualist

Chicago, Illinois

Luis Alvaro Sahagun Nuño was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico. Sahagun creates drawings, paintings, sculptures, and performances that confront the palpable inescapability of race and transforms art into an act of cultural and spiritual reclamation. He grew up undocumented and disconnected, and his practice is in part a response to this. As the grandson of a Curandera — and himself a practitioner of Curanderismo — when he makes art, he conjures indigenous spiritualities to embody the aesthetics of personal histories, cultural resistance, and colonial disruption.

He has exhibited widely at venues including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art (Roswell, NM), Charlie James Gallery (Los Angeles), Latchkey Gallery NYC, Arvika Art Gallery (Sweden), The National Museum of Mexican Art Chicago, EXPO Chicago, and the Chicago Cultural Center, among others. His work has been examined in publications including Artforum, the Los Angeles Times, Newcity, New American Paintings, and the Chicago Tribune. His practice has been spotlighted as having a unique voice helping to shape, shift, and touch the world on radio, podcasts, and television networks such as MundoFOX, UNIVISION and WBEZ-NPR. Sahagun has held residencies at Roswell, NM; Oaxaca, Mexico; the Chicago Artist Coalition; Mana Contemporary in Miami; and was an Artist in Residence for Critical Race Studies at Michigan State University. A 3Arts awardee, Sahagun received his undergraduate degree from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale and MFA at Northern Illinois University.

Donor -This award was generously supported by the Builders Initiative.

This artist page was last updated on: 08.26.2024

A portrait of a man on plywood. The man's body is decked out in clothing associated with European nobility in the Renaissance, but he wears a baseball cap on his head. Around the painting is an ornate frame broken into fragments.

Limpia no. 3 (Jose Luis “Don Chepe” Sahagun Sotelo) by Luis Alvaro Sahagun Nuñ0, 2022. Charcoal, paper, amethyst, obsidian crystals, resin, beads, Gorilla Glue, rope, joint compound, gold leaf, family photos, found objects, and caulk, 77 × 66 × 5 inches.

Photo by ofstudio, courtesy of the artist and Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles.

Two small portraits are hung on either side of a large full-body portrait. All three works are on plywood with ornate fragmented frames. The subjects of the portraits are contemporary people dressed as Renaissance nobility.

Maria Bonita, Maria del Alma by Luis Alvaro Sahagun Nuño, 2022. Charcoal, paper, Amethyst, obsidian crystals, resin, beads, Gorilla Glue, rope, joint compound, gold leaf, family photos, found objects, and caulk, 81 × 56 × 2.5 inches.

Photo by ofstudio, courtesy of the artist and Charlie James Gallery, Los Angeles.

Two portraits on plywood hang next to one another in fragmented, ornate frames. Both feature women dressed in the style of nobility in the Renaissance, including lavish lace collars.

Limpia no. 1 (Maria “Mariquita” Rodriguez Sahagun); Limpia no. 2 (Rosario Elizabeth “Chayo” Sahagun) by Luis Alvaro Sahagun Nuño, 2022. Charcoal, paper, amethyst, obsidian crystals, resin, beads, Gorilla Glue, rope, joint compound, gold leaf, family photos, found objects, and caulk, 56 × 46 × 4 inches each.

Photo courtesy of the artist.