Christian Gutierrez (b. 1996, El Paso, Texas) is a cross-disciplinary visual and sound artist whose practice transforms everyday objects through a rasquachismo sensibility. Working across collage, sculpture, print, sound, and kinetic systems, he creates work that explores play, chance, absurdity, and formal invention. Gutierrez holds a BFA in Graphic Design and Printmaking from the University of Texas at El Paso and an MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Statement

My interdisciplinary practice is rooted in collecting from my immediate environment, forming a personal library of images, objects, and sound sourced from my surroundings, treating everyday materials as points of departure. During the archiving process, the objects and images require actions and alterations that dissolve their original function and purpose as mass-produced items. Using systems of repetition and play, I act intuitively but always with a rasquachismo sensibility. I often introduce sound and kinetic elements to add absurdity and unpredictability, while exploring the tension between an object’s intended purpose and its transformed state, revealing an alternative function that is ultimately futile. I look for moments that reflect the quiet, often-overlooked rhythms of the everyday, shifting how we expect images and objects to behave or feel.