BIO

Vivian Gutiérrez is a multidisciplinary artist working across painting, sculpture, and poetry. Her work centers on the quiet endurance of women, exploring female strength as it is tested and transformed by the realities of migration, environmental shift, and the intricate internal landscapes of human emotion.

Born in Matagalpa, Nicaragua, and raised in San José, Costa Rica following her family's relocation during the Nicaraguan Revolution, her creative work is deeply rooted in personal and collective histories of movement across Nicaragua, Costa Rica, Mexico, Brazil, and the United States.

Gutiérrez’s artwork has been presented in prominent museums, diplomatic institutions, and galleries across the Americas and Europe. Highlighting her exhibition record is her inclusion in Diálogo y Creación en las Américas at the Organization of American States (OAS) – Permanent Mission of Mexico in Washington, D.C., where her work was featured in the official exhibition catalog in dialogue with iconic Latin American masters including Rufino Tamayo, Antonio Berni, Roberto Matta, and Oswaldo Guayasamín.

Her work has also been featured at the Saint Louis Art Museum (If It Wasn't For The Women), the Saint Louis History Museum (Humanidad Divina), and the Birmingham Bloomfield Art Center (30th Annual Michigan Art Competition). Her public art includes community murals created for the International Institute of Detroit.

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Artist statement

Vivian Gutiérrez is a Michigan-based painter and multidisciplinary artist whose practice bridges visual art and poetry to examine how historical displacement, global conflict, climate change, and human rights issues intersect with individual lives. Rooted in her own migration journey, she approaches art-making as an sanctuary to honor emotional endurance, spiritual depth, and the quiet dignity of the human spirit.

In her visual work, Gutiérrez builds tactile, heavily layered surfaces in acrylic using a palette knife, combining deliberate impasto application with fluid dripping and mixed media. This physical layering process mirrors the accumulation of memory, time, and lived history. By contrasting sweeping, anonymous crowds with intimate single portraits, her paintings invite viewers to navigate the tension between large-scale collective suffering and the profound strength of an individual story.

Poetry serves as a natural extension of Gutiérrez’s canvas, offering an intimate, reflective voice to the emotional undercurrents of her visual art. In poems such as Norte o sur and La Puerta, she explores the nuance of shifting identities across geographical borders, questioning notions of home, belonging, and internal transformation. Coupled with her work in ceramics, this poetic layer enriches her exploration of women’s inner resilience—a theme inspired by her mother’s decades-long fight against illness.

Through painting, clay, and spoken word, Gutiérrez invites viewers to recognize our shared vulnerability and innate capacity for endurance.

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Solo Exhibitions

2014 Anhelos de Paz, Embassy of Costa Rica. Washington, D.C.
2014 International Day of Peace, Brahma Kumaris. Michigan.
2014 Reflections of the Soul, Belas Artes. Saint Louis, Missouri.
2013 A Natural You. Creve Coeur, Missouri.
2012 Humanidad Divina, Saint Louis History Museum. Missouri.
2012 Glimpses, Belas Artes. Saint Louis, Missouri.
2009 Feminine Dimension, Belas Artes. Saint Louis, Missouri.
2007 Introspectiva de la Mujer, Cariari Country Club. Costa Rica.
2006 Artist of the Month, The Pointe. Ballwin, Missouri.

Group Exhibitions and Other Events

2023 Diálogo y Creación en las Américas, OEA-Misión Permanente de México. Washington, D.C.
2019 Hear Us! Juried Exhibit. Ypsilanti, Michigan.
2018 Fall Juried Exhibit. Ann Arbor Women Artists. Ann Arbor, Michigan.
2014 Impressions & Expressions, Belas Artes. Saint Louis, Missouri.
2014 Reflections, Life Force Arts Foundation. Chicago, Illinois.
2014 The Companion and The Warrior, LFAC. Chicago, Illinois.
2013 Schoolcraft Multicultural Fair. Livonia, Michigan.
2013 Little Treasures 2013, Galleria de Marchi. Bologna, Italy.
2013 AAWA Winter Art Show, Ypsilanti District Library. Michigan.
2013 Spirit Guides, Life Force Arts Center. Chicago, Illinois.
2012 Parallax AF NYC. New York.
2012 Parallax AF Miami. Florida.
2012 Great Lakes "Small Works", Ypsilanti, Michigan.
2012 Parallax (AF)5. Chelsea, London, UK.
2012 AAWA Summer Art Show, Riverside Arts Center Gallery. Michigan.
2012 Humanidad Divina, Saint Louis History Museum. Missouri.
2012 The Power of the Feminine, LFAC. Chicago, Illinois.
2012 30th Annual Michigan Art Competition, BBAC. Michigan.
2012 Art Retrograde, Life Force Art Center. Chicago, Illinois.
2012 Glimpses, Life Force Art Center. Chicago, Illinois.
2012 Monday Noon Series, University of Missouri at St. Louis. Missouri.
2012 If It Wasn't For The Women, Saint Louis Art Museum. Missouri.
2012 Women's Center. Ann Arbor, Michigan.
2011 AAWA 60th Anniversary Exhibit. Ann Arbor, Michigan.
2011 Beyond 9/11: Humans Healing Nature. Chicago, Illinois.
2011 Chicago Festival of Spiritual Art. Chicago, Illinois.
2011 Women's Center. Ann Arbor, Michigan.
2011 Casa de Salud. Saint Louis, Missouri.
2011 Hispanic Chamber of Commerce. Saint Louis, Missouri.
2009 Lazos, Latino Art Festival, Belas Artes. Saint Louis, Missouri.
2009 Muestra de Arte. Coahuila, Mexico.
2008 Colores, Latino Art Festival, Belas Artes. Saint Louis, Missouri.
2008 Collector's Choice, STL Artists Guild. Saint Louis, Missouri.
2007 Alegría, Latino Art Festival, Belas Artes. Saint Louis, Missouri.
2007 The Race Is On, STL Artists Guild. Saint Louis, Missouri.
2007 Collector's Choice, STL Artists Guild. Saint Louis, Missouri.
2007 Tribute to Mothers, Belas Artes. Saint Louis, Missouri.
2007 Women's Gallery and Honors Gallery. Saint Louis, Missouri.
2007 Being a Lady, Women's Gallery. Saint Louis, Missouri.
2006 Stretched to the Limits, STL Artists Guild. Saint Louis, Missouri.
2006 Art of Being a Woman, Women's Gallery. Saint Louis, Missouri.
2006 Beauties of Latin America, Belas Artes. Saint Louis, Missouri.
2006 Beauty from Within, Women's Gallery. Saint Louis, Missouri.
2006 Art in Your Life, Women's Gallery. Saint Louis, Missouri.
2006 Collector's Choice, STL Artists Guild. Saint Louis, Missouri.
2006 Venus Envy, Richmond Heights Community Center. Missouri.
2006 Venus Envy. Saint Louis, Missouri.
2006 Mirrors of Womanhood, Women's Gallery. Saint Louis, Missouri.
2006 Saint Louis County Library, Artists Guild. Saint Louis, Missouri.
2006 Gather the Women, Women's Gallery. Saint Louis, Missouri.
2006 Show of Love, ArtDimensions. Saint Louis, Missouri.

Murals

2016–2017 International Institute of Detroit