Antonio Jose Guzman

Antonio Jose Guzman (Panama City, 1971) is a Dutch-Panamanian visual artist. He lives and works in Amsterdam, Gujarat, Panama City and Dakar. 

An internationally renowned artist who work on issues of social justice, pattern research and study the colonial history of textile, highlighting the positive role of migration, social transformation and community engagement. Guzman is known for his installations and multidisciplinary works inspired by reflections on Diasporic Identities, storytelling and cultural analysis. His projects allow us to cross different time zones, unexplored worlds and realms; bringing us into what Guzman calls time travel perceptions. 

Working in different media including: Installation, textile, fiber art, collage, video, photography, experimental soundscapes, music composition, performance and acrylic painting techniques. Guzman reinterpret postcolonial attitudes in our society. His research of memory and time, open us to conceptions in the thinking of communities, ancestry, identity and the individual.

His work has been exhibited worldwide at: Sonsbeek 20-24 (Arnhem, NL), 18^th Streets Arts Center (California, US), The Museum of Contemporary Art, MHKA (Antwerp, BE), Nieuw Dakota (Amsterdam, NL), CBK South East (Amsterdam, NL), Gemak de Vrije Academie, (The Hague, NL), Gallery Image (Aarhus, DK), Knipsu Art Space (Bergen, NO) and in Rush Art Galleries (New York City, US). He participated in the Sharjah Biennial (AE), The Havana Biennial (CU), The Central American Biennial (CR) and in the Dakar Biennial (SN).

The flag sculptures of his installation project “EL Cielo de Mi Memoria“ were produced in collaboration with Atelier Articruz, the studio from the legendary Venezuelan painter and installation artist, Carlos Cruz-Diez, a prominent figure within the kinetic art movement.

Guzman’s “The Day we Surrender to the Air” film series and trilogy have been screened at Musee du Quai Branly (Paris, FR), Kunstvereniging Diepenheim (Diepenheim, NL), Hammer Museum (Los Angeles, US), 125 Maiden Lane Exhibition Space (New York City, US), Raw Material Company (Dakar, SN), Maison de l’Amérique Latine (Paris, FR), Museum of Modern Art of Bogotá (Bogotá, CO) and in film festivals such as the International Documentary Film Festival Amsterdam (IDFA), National Center for the Performing Arts Mumbai (IN), San Francisco International Arts Festival, Tessaloniki Documentary Festival International and the Netherlands Film Festival.

He has been giving lectures the last years in renowned institutions such as the New School New York; the Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem; the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam; the DAI Artez Master School program, Tent Rotterdam; IDFA Amsterdam, Det Jyske Kunstakademi, Aarhus, Denmark; and in Windward School Los Angeles, California.

Guzman was Lecturer Visual Arts, at the fine art department of ArtEZ University of the Arts. Base for Experiment, Art & Research (BEAR), Arnhem, Minerva Art Academy - Hanze University of Applied Sciences and Guest Lecturer at the Frank Mohr Institute for Graduate Studies and Research in the Arts and Emerging Media of the Hanze University Groningen (NL)

Between 2016 and 2017 he was a Curator – Researcher Latin America for BOZAR, Centre for Fine Arts – Palais des Beaux-Arts (Brussels, BE), in collaboration with the Directorate General for International Cooperation and Development of the European Commission and Interarts Barcelona.

His works are part of the collections of: Wifredo Lam Centre of Contemporary Art, Cuba; Gallerie Image, Denmark; Greenbox Museum of Contemporary Art from Saudi Arabia, The Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation, Los Angeles; OMI International Arts Center, New York and MAC Panama, Museum of Contemporary Art

Besides his individual art practice, Guzman had worked as advisor Visual Arts and Cultural Heritage at the Mondriaan Fonds, Jury at the Prix de Rome Art Awards and is the founder and creative director of The State of L3 Collective, a transatlantic diasporic group of visual artists, poets, writers, academics, performers and filmmakers who work together researching connections between Africa, The Caribbean and Latin America.

Guzman is currently working with visual artist Iva Jankovic on exhibitions at the Textile Museum, Tilburg NL and at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, NL.