Marta Chilindron

Photograph of Marta Chilindron

Born	December 21, 1951 La Plata, Argentina
Education	SUNY Old Westbury
Known For	ArtGeometric Sculpture
Website	martachilindron.com

Marta Chilindron

Marta Chilindron (born 21 December 1951, La Plata, Argentina) is a New York City based contemporary artist known for her kinetic, interactive, geometric sculptures. She creates manipulable artworks from colorful, transparent acrylics and polycarbonate, inviting viewers to fold, expand, and collapse the pieces.

Biography

Marta Chilindron was born in La Plata, Argentina in 1951. Raised in Montevideo, Uruguay she moved to New York City in 1969 where she earned her BFA from the State University of New York (SUNY) at Old Westbury. While studying for her BFA, she spent two summers in the Camnitzer-Porter Studio in Valdottavo, Italy, in 1977 and 1978, studying printmaking. This education was fundamental to her pursuit of a life in the arts.

Early Work

Untitled N 10, 1985-1995, painted wood, 12 x 72 x 122 in.

In the mid-late 1980's, Chilindron started her investigation in sculpture, creating wooden constructions of everyday domestic environments distorted through the same skewed perspective. These works emphasized the relationship between the body and its surroundings, a theme that has remained central to her practice. Such works were exhibited in various institutions, including MoMa PS1 and York College, CUNY.

During the early 1990s, Chilindron studied drawing with Julio Alpuy, a Uruguayan artist trained by Joaquín Torres-García. Together with the technical and conceptual training she had received in Italy, her studies with Alpuy provided a strong grounding in geometry and abstraction informed by the traditions of Joaquín Torres-García's "La Escuela del Sur" ("School of the South") .

Throughout the 1990s, Chilindron collaborated with conceptual artist Eduardo Costa on a series of public interventions. One such project, Touched by Light (1992), involved projecting the image of a hand onto the facades of Manhattan buildings from a moving truck. Together, they also realized interventions in Brazil and Chile as well as created sulptures and paintings from art and fashion magazines.

By the end of the decade, Chilindron had begun developing collapsible sculptures that employed hinges to enable continuous transformation. In 1999, she created Cinema Kinesis, a site-specific installation for El Museo del Barrio. The work shifted between a flat configuration on the floor and a three-dimensional environment composed of three rows of movie theater seats facing a screen, exploring the dynamic relationship between object, space, and viewer participation.

Career

Chilindron’s work bridges the lineage of international constructivism with dynamic, kinetic art. Over her career, her work has evolved into crafting complex, hinged acrylic structures. Her signature transparent geometric and modular forms can unfold into flat, abstract shapes or expand into immersive, three-dimensional spaces. Her sculptures rely on hinges, allowing viewers or the artist herself to fold, unfold, expand, and alter the physical dimensions of the artwork. Her work has been exhibited in a variety of pristigious fine art institutions including Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Blanton Museum of Art , Museo del Barrio , MoMa Ps1 , Fonds d'art contemporain de la Ville de Genève (FMAC), Hispanic Society Museum & Library as well as, but not limited to; art fairs such as Art Basel Hong Kong (2014), Frieze (2019), The Armory Show (multiple years), and PINTA(multiple years).

Public Work

"Unexpected Spaces - Green", 2023-2025, tryptic, digitally printed glass and steel, 21' x 35’,International Airport Houston

Her most prominent public works include large-scale acrylic, polycarbonate, and steel structures that invite the public to walk through them and their colorful shadows to witness the transformation of shape and space.

'Mobius Houston', created for Public Art University of Houston System, was made in 2019 and existed in interactive view for the public through April 2020. Being nearly four times the size of Chilindron's earlier work in the 'Mobius' series, this piece introduced a significant advance in material use and production.

"Orange Cube 48", an immersive work originally created for Art Basel Hong Kong 'Encounters' in 2014, was later installed in 2023 on Audubon Terrace for a partnership of The Hispanic Society Museum & Library and the Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance (NoMAA).

'Unexpected Spaces' is a permanently installed triptych for Houston International Airport (IAH). Constructed of digitally printed glass mounted to a steel frame, the works are on view for passing travelers. 'Unexpected Spaces' was commissioned by the City of Houston on behalf of Houston Airports through the city’s Civic Art Program and Houston Art Alliance.

Select Solo Exhibitions

Year	Exhibition	Location	Links
2025	Unexpected Spaces	Permanent installation at George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH), Houston, Texas, USA	[1]
2025	Abstract Transitions	Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino, Houston, TX. USA	[2]
2023	Orange Cube	Hispanic Society of America, New York, NY, USA	[3]
2022	Parallell Greens	Jones School of Business, Rice University, Houston, TX, USA	[4]
2019	Houston Mobius	Inaugural Installation of the Public Art of the University of Houston System’s (PAUHS) new Temporary Public Art Program, University of Houston, TX, USA	[5]
2019	Geometry at Play: Sculpture by Marta Chilindron	Cecilia de Torres, Ltd., New York, NY, USA	[6]
2019	Diálogos	Frieze New York, New York, NY, USA	[7]
2018	Marta Chilindron: GEO	Point of Contact Gallery, Syracuse University, Syracuse, NY, USA
2015	Temporal Systems	Alejandra Von Hartz Gallery, Miami, FL, USA	[8]
2014	Expand//Fold//Collapse: Sculptures by Marta Chilindron	The Great Hall Exhibitions, Institute of Fine Arts, New York University, New York, NY, USA	[9]
2014	Orange Cube, Encounters	Art Basel Hong Kong, China	[10]
2013	Marta Chilindron: Integral Geometries	Museum of Latin American Art (MOLAA), Long Beach, CA, USA	[11]
2012	Marta Chilindron	Galeria Laura Marsiaj, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2011	Marta Chilindron: Constructions	Cecilia de Torres, Ltd., New York, NY, USA	[12]
2010	Marta Chilindron	Galerie Alejandra von Hartz, Miami, FL, USA	[13]
2008	Marta Chilindron	Laura Marsiaj Arte Contemporânea, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
2006	Sculpture in Four Dimensions	Amelie A. Wallace Gallery at SUNY, Old Westbury, NY, USA
2006	Marta Chilindron	VCUQ Gallery, Doha, Qatar	[14]
2004	Marta Chilindron	Kantoor Langeveld, Amsterdam, Netherlands
2001	Sculptures	Dot Galerie, Geneva, Switzerland	[15]
1999	Cinema Kinesis	El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY, USA	[16]
1997	Dimensions	Cecilia de Torres, Ltd., New York, NY, USA	[17]
1994	Talking Paintings & Dreams	IBEU Copacabana & IBEU Madureira, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (with Eduardo Costa)	[18]
1993	Mag Sculptures	Gallery B, Fairfield University, Fairfield, CT, USA
1993	Touched by Light, (A Street Work)	New York, NY, USA
1987	Outdoor Installation	CUNY, QCC, Bayside, New York, NY, USA
1986	Permanent Installation	York College, CUNY, New York, NY, USA	[19]

Awards

• 2022 Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Grant
• 2022 NoMAA Commission to create a public for Hispanic Society Audubon Terrace
• 2020 Creative Engagement Grant
• 2019 UMEZ Arts Engagement Grant
• 2013 Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Grant
• 2007 Excellency in Art Award, Alumni Association of the State University of New York
• 2003 Civitella Ranieri Foundation Artist Residency, Umbria, Italy
• 2001 Anonymous Was A Woman
• 2000 Joan Mitchell Foundation, Inc. Award
• 1986 Pollock-Krasner Foundation, Grant
• 1985-1983 MoMa PS-1 Museum, National Studio Program, Artist Residency

Publications

• 2012: Beta Sichel, “Constructions,” Arte al Dia International, #139.
• 2012: Tatiana Flores, “Marta Chilindron at Cecilia de Torres,” ArtNexus, Vol. 11 #84.
• 2012: Robert C. Morgan, “Sculpture in New York,” World Sculpture News, Vol. 18 #1
• 2011: Constructions exhibition catalogue, essays by Eleanor Heartney and Richard Vine.
• 2010: Goschka Gawlik, “Kunst News, Focus Lodz Biennale 2010”, 2-10-10, art magazine, Vienna, Austria.
• 2001: Richard Vine, “Report from Rio de la Plata,” Art in America, Oct.
• 1997: Jonathan Goodman, “Marta Chilindron at Cecilia de Torres,” Art in America, Sept.
• 1996: Ana Tiscornia, “Perverting the Specific Object,” Atlantica Int. Revista de las Artes, #15.
• 1993: Monica Amor, “Contemporary Art of Argentina, Brazil & Colombia,” Art Nexus, 6-8/93.
• 1992: Berta Sichel, “Touched by Light,” Art Nexus

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