Mev Luna (b. Houston, Texas, 1988) is an interdisciplinary artist currently based in New York. Through a research-based practice and self-reflexive methodology, Luna’s practice rethinks history to identify the fictions that govern contemporary life and speculative futures. They work between live performance, video installation, new media, and text.

 

Luna holds an MFA in Performance from School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2017) and a BFA in Textiles and Media Arts from California College of the Arts (2011). Luna’s works have been exhibited in solo presentations at EXPO Chicago 2019 and 062 Gallery; presented in group exhibitions at Andrew Rafacz Gallery Chicago, Oficina de Arte, México City; PRIZM Art Fair, Miami; and the Oliver Arts Center, Oakland. Luna's time-based works have been presented at SFMOMA San Francisco; Artists' Television Access, San Francisco; MIX Queer Experimental Film Festival, New York, and Defibrillator Gallery, Chicago. Luna was a 2018 Art Matters Foundation Fellowship recipient; 2018-2019 BOLT resident at the Chicago Artist Coalition; 2017 SOMA Summer participant in Mexico City and a 2015–2016 Research Fellow at the Shapiro Center for Research and Collaboration. They are currently a 2019-2021 AICAD Post-Graduate Teaching Fellow and Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art Practice at Parsons School of Design. Luna has recently been named a 2020-2021 Queer Arts Mentorship Mentee.

EDUCATION

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2017 School of the Art Institute of Chicago, MFA in Performance

2011 California College of the Arts, BFA, Textiles and Media Arts, High Distinction

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RESIDENCIES

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2020-2021 Queer Arts Mentorship, Mentee

2018-2019 BOLT Resident, Chicago Artists Coalition

2017 SOMA Summer Program, Mexico City, México

2011 Many Mini Residency, Skydive Art Space, Houston

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SOLO SHOWS

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2019

EXPO Chicago, Booth 174, Chicago Artists Coalition, curated by Sheridan Anderson Tucker

Far from the distance we see, Chicago Artists Coalition, Chicago

2018

Call A Mom Phone Bank, 062 Gallery, Chicago

2012

The Weight of the Shape-shift Body, Oakopolis Gallery, Oakland

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GROUP SHOWS

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2020

Empathy Fatigue, Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago

2019

Dead Future(s), Heaven Gallery, Chicago

2018

Education as the Practice of Freedom, YoungArts Campus, Miami

2017

Chicago 9, PRIZM Art Fair, Miami, FL

Between the Real and Utopia, SITE Gallery, SAIC, Chicago

The Imposter, Oficina de Arte, México City

How to Avoid Trauma, SOMA Headquarters, México City

I Still Wear My Mom’s Brown Sweater, COLLABO, Chicago

2016

Alien Tears, Performance by Emilio Rojas, Chicago Artist Coalition, Chicago

Will I See You in the Future?, New Blood Performance Festival T E N, Links Hall, Chicago

Scoring and Keeping Score, Defibrillator Gallery, Chicago

Technical Images, Online Exhibition

Technical Images, Elastic Arts, Chicago

1,422 Miles at a Distance, Northern Triangle, Threewalls@Rational Park Gallery, Chicago

2015

Out of Site: Unexpected Encounters of Public Performance, Chicago

2013

MIX: Queer Experimental Film Festival, New York

2011

The Weight of the Shape-shift Body, BFA Thesis Exhibition, North Gallery, California College of the Arts, Oakland

Nobody Makes Sculpture Now Days…, Oliver Art Center, Oakland

Queer It Yourself: Tools for Survival, SOMArts, San Francisco

Open Your Golden Gates, GIV, Montreal, Canada

Senorita Cinema, Aurora Picture Show, Houston

Entzaubert DIY Film Festival, Berlin, Germany

2010

Feast of the Beast: Wurst, then Queer, Artists’ Television Access, San Francisco

Queer Couture, Femina Potens Art Gallery, San Francisco

DirtStar National Queer Arts Festival, SOMArts, San Francisco

Lost and Found, North and South Galleries, California College of the Arts, Oakland

2009

Confused Gorillas Throwing Mangos, Collaboration with Roxy Farhat, Blue Six Room, San Francisco

18th Annual San Francisco Fringe Festival, SF Garage, San Francisco

2006

YoungArts Finalist Exhibition, The Margulies Collection Warehouse, Miami

Hit Me, The Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston

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LECTURE PERFORMANCES / SYMPOSIA

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2018

DiasporX, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

Which Ancestors Do We Run Towards?, P.O.W.E.R. Project, Art Leaders of Color Network, Comfort Station,

Chicago

In-Motion: Performance and Unsettling Borders, Northwestern University, Evanston

Theater of the Unexpected, In-Pogress: Marcela Torres in Conversation with Mev Luna, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago

2017

Pointing to Between the Real and Utopia: A Performative Panel moderated by Mechtild Widrich and Máire Witt O’Neil, SAIC Neiman Center, Chicago

Fact Checking My Father, Inaugural Berkeley/Stanford Symposium: Not-At-Home, Migration Pilgrimage, and

Displacement in Art, Design, and Visual Culture, SFMoMA, San Francisco

Which Ancestors Do We Run Towards? Mev Luna in Conversation with Anna Martine Whitehead, FLEXSpace,

Sullivan Galleries, Chicago

2016

Going Off(Shore) Learning Symposium, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago

Shapiro Fellowship Research Symposium, International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago

2010

Queer Art & Visual Culture Symposium, Helzel Boardroom, California College of the Arts, San Francisco

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PUBLICATIONS / BIBLIOGRAPHY

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2020

Public Parking Magazine, "Rendering as a capacity through which to see: In Conversation with Mev Luna," Jameson Paige, September 14

Hyperallergic, "Fatigued by the Everyday? These Artists Are, Too", review of "Empathy Fatigue," by Gabrielle Welsh, presented at Andrea Rafacz Gallery, February 13

The Seen, Chicago's International Journal of Contemporary Art, "Tensions of Access: Empathy Fatigue // Andrew Rafacz" review by Maggie Wong, April 20

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2018

Conversations at the Edge, Interview with filmmaker Camilo Restrepo, September 25, 2018

Chicago Woman, "Artist Spotlight: Mev Luna", May 7, 2018

Chicago Tribune, “Talkin’ bodies at Chicago Artists Coalition; Mev Luna is available to take your call at 062 Gallery”, April 25

Bad At Sports, "Top V. Weekend Picks (4/19-4/25)", April 19

2017

Chicago Tribune, “Small print sparkles; a special view of Utopia”, December 7

Performing Text, Performing Politics, print, Exhibition Catalogue

Chicago 9, print, PRIZM Art Fair, Exhibition Catalogue

Passing the Mountains: An Oral History of Vicente Campos’ House in Tepotzlán, online media, Bad At Sports

How To Avoid Trauma, print, SOMA Summer Program collective publication

Interview with Hyphen-Labs on NueroSpeculative Afrofuturism, online media, Conversations at The Edge blog, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

2016

GRAFT: Interview with Edra Soto, Emerge Graduate Journal, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

On Text of Light and Films by László Moholy-Nagy, online media, Conversations at The Edge blog,

School of the Art Institute of Chicago

On Nicolás Pereda, Conversations at The Edge blog, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Diaspora<>Diaspora, Public Excess, online contemporary media magazine, Co-founder

Chicago Artist Writers, “Shapeshifters presents ‘Scoring and Keeping Score’”, December 21

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AWARDS / GRANTS

2018

Art Matters Foundation, Grantee

Illinois Arts Council, Individual Artist Grant

2017

Dean Professional Development Award, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

2015

Shapiro Center for Research and Collaboration, Fellowship, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

Pritzker Scholarship, School of the Art Institute of Chicago

2006 - 2011

California College of the Arts Creative Achievement Award

California College of the Arts Diversity Scholarship

Gertrude Schaufel Memorial Scholarship

2010

Florence Samuels Scholarship Fund Fellowship, Haystack Mountain School of Crafts

2006

Level II Award, YoungArts

Nominee, Presidential Scholar in the Arts