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Carlos Zuniga

Born in 1972 in Chile
Lives and works in Santigo, Chile

Carlos Zuniga’s practice engages with notions of collective memory and identity, and the way they are shaped by historical trauma, cultural turmoil and censorship. Zuniga undertakes a unique process of creating works through “erasing” information: the artist may black out words in the phone book, rocks in the landscape, or on one occasion, the entire text of Darwin’s Origin of the Species to engage in a probing dialogue into these historical and philosophical issues.

Zuniga is most famed for his practice of creating intricate images of dramatic landscapes and austere portraits of their inhabitants through erasing names in pages of the phone book one by one. Through the destruction of textual identities, a new layer of representational information is created. Wholly consuming, Zuniga’s non-violent images resurface turbulent histories on a individual human and political level.

Born in 1972 in Chile, Zuniga studied architecture at Andres Bello National University, followed by design at the Professional Institute of Providencia, and fine art at the University of Chile. In 2007, Zuniga was awarded the Grant Fondart by the Chilean Ministry of Culture, as well as the Bicentenary Young Artist Exhibition Prize in Santiago. Zuniga exhibits internationally; in 2010 he had solo exhibitions at AMS Marlborough Gallery, Santiago and Edel Assanti Gallery, London. His work has been included in major survey exhibitions of Chilean contemporary art at the Contemporary Art Museum of Santiago and the Visual Arts Museum of Santiago. Zuniga lives and works in Chile.

Solo Exhibitions
2010 – Imperial Poem – Edel Assanti Gallery, London, UK
2010 – Beginning of the Aura – AMS Marlborough Gallery, Santiago, Chile
2008 – Detained in Apnea – Florencia Loewenthal Gallery, Santiago, Chile

Group Exhibitions and Art Fairs
2011 – Pinta Art Fair, London, UK
2011 – Chaco Art Fair, Santiago, Chile
2011 – Galería XS, Colectiva 1
2010 – Chaco Art Fair, Santiago, Chile
2009 – Clásico Universitario – Sala de Arte CCU, Santiago, Chile
2009 – Chaco Art Fair, Santiago, Chile
2009 – Young Artist Show – Contemporary Art Museum, Santiago, Chile
2008 – Free For Wall! part 2 – The Brick Lane Gallery, London, UK
2008 – Full Image – Santiago de Querétaro Museum, Querétaro, México
2007 – Bicentenary Young Artist Show – Visual Arts Museum, Santiago, Chile
2007 – Next – Balmaceda Gallery, Santiago, Chile
2006 – Young Artist Show 2006 – Contemporary Art Museum, Santiago, Chile