Guadalupe Maravilla: Mariposa Relámpago

Mariposa Relámpago opens in Ballroom Marfa’s courtyard on Saturday, November 4, 2023 with a sound ceremony led by the artist Guadalupe Maravilla. In 2021 and 2022, Maravilla was a Ballroom Sessions—The Farther Place artist-in-residence.

Maravilla (b. 1976 in San Salvador, El Salvador) grounds his sculpture, painting, performance, and large-scale installation in activism and healing, informed by his personal story of migration, illness, and recovery. At the age of eight, Maravilla fled El Salvador’s civil war as an unaccompanied minor and made a perilous journey through Central America to reunite with family in the United States. In the 2010s, Maravilla was diagnosed with colon cancer—an illness he links to generational trauma and the stresses of being undocumented—and during the recovery process, he was introduced to ancient methods of healing, including the use of sound. This life event shifted Maravilla’s practices, and he has since worked tirelessly to raise awareness of trauma and expand access to healing, nurturing collective narratives with a sense of perseverance and humanity.

Mariposa Relámpago, which translates to Lightning Butterfly, incorporates natural materials, handmade objects, metal gongs, and items collected while retracing his migratory route. The gongs are activated by the artist during public sound baths to deploy the powers of vibrational sound as a form of healing. Maravilla’s artworks also contain a cosmology of potent symbols and objects that connect the artist’s personal journey with ancient practices of the Indigenous Mayan peoples; diverse spiritual and folk beliefs; and contemporary crises of disease, ecology, and war. Mariposa Relámpago, is the artist’s largest sculpture to date, and functions as an artwork, shrine and healing machine. 

Also on view is a mural inspired by a Salvadoran children’s game where two players draw lines between numbers, ultimately forming an abstract pattern or map. At Ballroom, Maravilla and a collaborator, who shares similar experiences of migration, will create Tripa Chuca  together on Ballroom’s courtyard walls. 

Guadalupe Maravilla: Mariposa Relámpago is commissioned by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston and organized by Ruth Erickson, Barbara Lee Chief Curator and Director of Curatorial Affairs, Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston. 

Ballroom Marfa’s presentation is organized by Daisy Nam, Alexann Susholtz, Sarah Melendez. Generous support from Ruth Foundation, Texas Commission on the Arts, City of Marfa, Suzanne Deal Booth, The Brown Foundation, Inc., Lebermann Foundation; Ballroom Marfa Board of Trustees; and International Surf Club Founding Members. 

Mariposa Relámpago will travel to venues across Texas through a partnership between organizations including Ballroom Marfa, The Contemporary Austin’s Betty and Edward Marcus Sculpture Park at Laguna Gloria, and Blaffer Art Museum at the University of Houston.