Beatriz Cortez’s work comprises simultaneous and converging temporalities, from geologic time to distant futures. Drawing on her own experience of migration and an expansive philosophical framework, her projects trouble anthropocentric perspectives and look to ancient, futuristic, and object-centered models to address the pressing concerns of the moment.
The Portals is an exhibition in multiple locations that explores alternative genealogies of Williams College. The three outdoor components located on Main Street attend to omissions and erasures in the built environment of the campus. (See map below.) Inside the WCMA Rotunda, the immersive sound installation interrogates the stories that we selectively tell, those we remember, and those we choose to forget. In the adjacent Stoddard Gallery, the artist’s steel structures offer an embrace to two objects that came into WCMA’s collection against their will.
Stitching together different voices that inhabited the landscape, the installations invite viewers to coexist with various people who have believed in equality, justice, curiosity, diversity, and freedom in the area where Williamstown was created, and also to imagine the cyclical dimension of these struggles that seem to repeat themselves in a nation plagued by inequality.
Curated by Lisa Dorin, Deputy Director for Curatorial Engagement
About the artist
Beatriz Cortez (b. 1970, San Salvador, El Salvador; lives and works in Los Angeles) received an MFA in Art from the California Institute of the Arts and a Ph.D. in Literature and Cultural Studies from Arizona State University. She has had solo exhibitions at Storm King Art Center, New York (2023); the Craft Contemporary Museum, Los Angeles (2019); Clockshop, Los Angeles (2018); Vincent Price Art Museum, Los Angeles (2016); Monte Vista Projects, Los Angeles (2016); Centro Cultural de España de El Salvador (2014); and Museo Municipal Tecleño (MUTE), El Salvador (2012), among others. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions, including at the Henry Art Gallery, Seattle (2019); Ballroom Marfa, TX (2019); Tina Kim Gallery, New York (2018); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2018); BANK/MABSOCIETY, Shanghai, China (2017); Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, Texas (2017); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2017); Centro Cultural Metropolitano, Quito, Ecuador (2016); and Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (2016). Cortez is the recipient of the Artadia Los Angeles Award (2020), the inaugural Frieze LIFEWTR Sculpture Prize (2019), the Emergency Grant from the Foundation of Contemporary Arts (2019), the Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artist Grant (2018), the Artist Community Engagement Grant (2017), and the California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Artists (2016). She teaches in the Department of Central American and Transborder Studies at California State University, Northridge. Beatriz Cortez is represented by Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles.
Beatriz Cortez (b. 1970, San Salvador, El Salvador; vive y trabaja en Los Ángeles) obtuvo una Maestría en Bellas Artes en el California Institute of the Arts y un doctorado en literatura latinoamericana en Arizona State University. Ha tenido exhibiciones personales en el Craft Contemporary Museum, Los Ángeles (2019); Clockshop, Los Ángeles (2018); Vincent Price Art Museum, Los Ángeles (2016); Monte Vista Projects, Los Ángeles (2016); Centro Cultural de España de El Salvador (2014); y en el Museo Municipal Tecleño (MUTE), El Salvador (2012). Su obra ha sido incluida en numerosas exhibiciones colectivas, incluyendo en Henry Art Gallery, Seattle (2019); Ballroom Marfa, Texas (2019); Tina Kim Gallery, New York (2018); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2018); BANK/MABSOCIETY, Shanghai, China (2017); Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, Texas (2017); Whitney Museum of American Art, New York (2017); Centro Cultural Metropolitano, Quito, Ecuador (2016); y en Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (2016). Cortez ha recibido el Artadia Los Angeles Award (2020); Frieze LIFEWTR Sculpture Prize (2019); Emergency Grant de la Foundation of Contemporary Arts (2019); Rema Hort Mann Foundation Emerging Artist Grant (2018); Artist Community Engagement Grant (2017); y California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Artists (2016). Es catedrática en el Departamento de Estudios Centroamericanos y Transfronterizos en California State University, Northridge. Beatriz Cortez es representada por la galería Commonwealth and Council en Los Ángeles.