20HERTZ: Maria Chavez presents REVISITING THOSE WORDS: Failed Attempt as Material

The Contemporary Arts Museum Houston is pleased to present another installment in its music-based lecture series, 20HERTZ, 20HERTZ: Maria Chavez presents REVISITING THOSE WORDS: Failed Attempt as Material.

Using failed proposals as the storyline, Maria Chavez will introduce the audience to her career as a sound artist through the lens of rejection.

The lecture will include information about Chavez’s work, her focus on the gender neutral position of chance, and subjective views on curating sound-based exhibitions in NYC, London, and Berlin.

About Maria Chavez
Born in Lima, Peru, Maria Chávez is mainly known as an abstract turntablist, sound artist, and DJ. Influenced by chance and improvisation in contemporary art, she is currently a research fellow for the Sound Practice Research department at Goldsmith’s University of London until 2017.

Chavez presents workshops and lectures for major universities and arts organizations worldwide, including New York University; Brown University; Haute École des arts du Rhin, Mulhouse, France; Universität&der Künste Berlin; SSR London; Espai d’art contemporani de Castelló, Spain; and the School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Berklee College, Boston, among others.

She was awarded the St. Luke’s Chamber Ensemble commission 2015 where she presented a new sound piece, NY Sonic Scores 2015, at the Brooklyn Museum and Morgan Library in May and a New Works commission from the Jerome Foundation.

Chavez has collaborated with Christian Marclay and the Whitney Museum of American Art, performed alongside Pauline Oliveros, Thurston Moore, and Phill Niblock, and worked with Merce Cunningham prior to his passing as a sound artist in residence with DIA:Beacon.

Chavez has been an artist in residence with INKONST Arts in Malmö, Sweden; Klangraum Residency, Austria; EMS Elektronmusikstudion in Stockholm, Sweden; and the Kitchen in NYC where she presented her large-scale multi-channel sound installation Sound Bleed @ the Kitchen. She served as curator in residence with Cafe OTO, OTO Projects, and Electra Productions in London, UK.

In 2015 her sound installations and sculptures were exhibited for acclaimed art galleries such as BRIC Arts Media in Brooklyn, MoMA PS1 Print Shop, Present Company, Brooklyn, and CONTEXT Art Miami at the Sound Positions Pavilion in conjunction with Art Basel Miami.

This year Chavez will present new works for the Cervantes Institute in NYC and for the Judd Foundation in Marfa, Texas. She was recently awarded a fellowship with the Civitella Ranieri Foundation in Umbria, Italy where she will be composer in residence in May of 2016.

TWITTER: https://twitter.com/Chavezsayz