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's works have been exhibited in group exhibitions at Oficina de Arte, México City; PRIZM Art Fair, Miami; Threewalls, Chicago; and the Oliver Arts Center, Oakland. Luna's time-based works have been presented at Artists' Television Access, San Francisco; MIX Queer Experimental Film Festival, New York, SFMOMA San Francisco; 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 2019-2020 AICAD Post-Graduate Teaching Fellow at Parsons School of Design.
EDUCATION
2017 School of the Art Institute of Chicago, MFA in Performance
2011 California College of the Arts, BFA, Textiles and Media Arts, High Distinction
RESIDENCIES
2018-2019 BOLT Resident, Chicago Artists Coalition
2017 SOMA Summer Program, Mexico City, México
2011 Many Mini Residency, Skydive Art Space, Houston
SOLO SHOWS
2019
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
GROUP SHOWS
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
LECTURE PERFORMANCES / SYMPOSIA
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
PUBLICATIONS / BIBLIOGRAPHY
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
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