Minerva Cuevas
Lives and works in
(b. 1975 in Mexico City, Mexico; lives in Mexico City) With the flexibility of a saboteur, Minerva Cuevas intervenes in existing systems and turns them to her own ends. Offshore, 2014, from the series Hidrocaraburos (Hydrocarbons), is a “hacked,” altered, historical landscape painting of the sort found in antique shops. Cuevas intervenes by covering the surface with layers of chapopote, the Nahuatl term for tar or blacktop, commonly found in Mexico in petroleum byproducts such as asphalt, naturally occurring deposits, or the slick from industrial spills. The piece is related to Cuevas’s 2007 installation Serie Hidrocarburos that reflects her research on the effects of the oil industry on the Yucatán peninsula.
(b. 1975 in Mexico City, Mexico; lives in Mexico City) With the flexibility of a saboteur, Minerva Cuevas intervenes in existing systems and turns them to her own ends. Offshore, 2014, from the series Hidrocaraburos (Hydrocarbons), is a “hacked,” altered, historical landscape painting of the sort found in antique shops. Cuevas intervenes by covering the surface with layers of chapopote, the Nahuatl term for tar or blacktop, commonly found in Mexico in petroleum byproducts such as asphalt, naturally occurring deposits, or the slick from industrial spills. The piece is related to Cuevas’s 2007 installation Serie Hidrocarburos that reflects her research on the effects of the oil industry on the Yucatán peninsula.
