MARIA CHAVEZ

"Over the last decade, (Chavez) has pursued pristine and thoughtful turntablist work."- Kurt Gottschalk, The WIRE, 3/2013

Born in Lima, Peru, Maria Chavez is mainly recognized in the art community as an improviser, curator and sound artist.

Her sound installations, visual objects and live turntable performances focus on the values of accidents and it's unique, complicated possibilities with sound emitting machinery like the turntable.

Influenced by improvisation in contemporary art, her work expands outside of the sound world straddling different disciplines of interest. This year, Chavez wrote and illustrated her first book object entitled, Of Technique: Chance Procedures on Turntable. The book serves as a how-to manual for those interested in learning the abstract turntablism techniques that she developed with the turntable. This book is considered the first sound related release by Chavez since her solo album release in 2004.

Chavez also works as an independent sound art curator in NYC, collaborating with various organizations and art spaces, helping to produce events and festivals that present the latest of what is being shown in the sound art world. Being an independent curator helps to expand Maria's artistic research when developing new projects for her own practice.

She was awarded the Jerome Foundation's Emerging Artist Grant by New York’s Roulette Intermedium in 2008, and in 2009 she became a recipient of the Van Lier Fellowship by The Edward and Sally Van Lier Fund of the New York Community Trust. Maria was an artist in residence with the Merce Cunningham Dance Company, the Clocktower and the DIA:Beacon Museum. She has worked with Christian Marclay and the Whitney Museum of American Art in NYC as part of Christian Marclay: FESTIVAL and has shared the stage with renowned artists such as: Pauline Oliveros; Thurston Moore; Lydia Lunch; Phill Niblock and Otomo Yoshihide.