Installation view of Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, April 6- September 5, 2022).
Awilda Sterling-Duprey, . . . blindfolded, 2020–.
Photograph by Ron Amstutz, courtesy the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Installation view of Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, April 6- September 5, 2022).
Awilda Sterling-Duprey, . . . blindfolded, 2020–.
Photograph by Ron Amstutz, courtesy the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Installation view of Whitney Biennial 2022: Quiet as It’s Kept (Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, April 6- September 5, 2022).
Awilda Sterling-Duprey, . . . blindfolded, 2020–.
Photograph by Ron Amstutz, courtesy the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
1947 - San Juan, PR
Lives and works : San Juan, PR
Awilda Sterling is an experimental, independent, and multidisciplinary artist. Her practice and studies incorporate bodywork techniques and a mix of contemporary and experimental kinesthetics. Her most recent artistic endeavors fuse abstract expressionism, Caribbean dance, animation, performance, sound, and video.
Sterling is a founding member of Pisotón, the first experimental dance collective in Puerto Rico. Her ongoing performance piece, Blindfolded, which involves drawing while listening to recorded excerpts of jazz improvisation, was showcased at the 2022 Whitney Biennial: Quiet as It's Kept. She has received numerous fellowships and artist residencies, such as the Rauschenberg Residency, the Joan Mitchell Fellowship, and the Mass MoCA residency, all in 2022. Additionally, she received the Tree of Life grant in 2019, and was awarded a USA Fellowship in Choreography in 2010.
EDUCATION
2011 Doctoral studies, Caribbean and Puerto Rican History, San Juan, PR
1979 MFA, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn, US
1971 BA Painting, School of Visual Arts, San Juan, PR
1967 BA, Humanities, Minor: Visual Arts, Languages and French Literature, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, San Juan, PRBFA,
SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS
2020 ...blindfolded, El Cuadrado Gris San Juan, PR
2019 con son y ton, Liga de Arte de San Juan, San Juan, PR
2018 Correspondence/correspondencia, El Lobi and Taller Malaquita, San Juan, PR
2018 en-cierro, Área, lugar de proyectos, Caguas, PR
1991 Buscando lo que no se me ha perdido, Liga de Arte de San Juan, PR
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2022 no existe un mundo poshuracán: Puerto Rican Art in the Wake of Hurricane Maria, curated by Marcela Guerrero, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, US
Whitney Biennial: Quite as It’s Kept, Whitney Museum of American Art, New York, US Cimarronas: artistas negras y afrodescendientes, Museo Casa Escuté, Carolina, PR
Untitled II, Kilometro 0.2, San Juan, PR
2021 25 años de Parentesis: Ocho artistas negres puertorriqueños, Casa Afro, Loiza, PR
2020 Grafito: Muestra Colectiva de Dibujo, Pública, San Juan, PR
That's All, Folks!!!, Kilometro 0.2, San Juan, PR
2019 Puerto Rico Plural, Museo de Arte de Puerto Rico (MAPR), San Juan, PR
2018 50 años de la Liga, Liga de Arte de San Juan, San Juan, PR
2015 La experiencia Afrodescendiente, Casa Escute, Carolina, PR
Bienal Poligrafica de Puerto Rico y el Caribe, Arsenal de la Puntilla, San Juan, PR
2014 Careos y relevos, Signos vitales, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo (MAC), San Juan, PR 1986
Parentesis: Ocho artistas negros contemporáneos, Arsenal de La Puntilla, San Juan
1984-1985 MSA Gallery, San Juan, PR
PERFORMANCE
2018 Inconexo, Teatro Tapia, San Juan, PR
Lacks Criticality, Choreographic Commission Series, Temple University, Boyer College of Music and Dance, Philadelphia, US
en-cierro, Casa Cultural Ruth Hernández, Río Piedras, Puerto Rico and Galería Diagonal, Santurce, PR
se fue..., Old San Juan, PR
en-cierro, Area: Lugar de Proyectos, Caguas, PR
2017 That Around Which The Universe Revolves, SAVVY CONTEMPORARY, Berlin, DE
2016 en-cierro, Premiere, Sala Experimental, Centro de Bellas Artes, Santurce, PR
2015 De Maelo al Hip- Hop, Galería Casa Jefferson, San Juan, PR
En cuerpo de Maelo, Centro de Bellas Artes Luis A. Ferré, San Juan, PR
Maelo en el cuerpo, Ismael Rivera Cultural Foundation, Saturce, PR
Transparente desnudez, Arsenal de La Puntilla, San Juan, PR
Slow Motion Reggaeton, Post-Modern Afro Latinidad, The Dance Center, Columbia College, Chicago, US
This is NOT Entertainment!, Beckett Performance Space, Río Piedras, PR
2004 Vejigante Decrépito, Caribe 2000, English Department, University of Puerto Rico, Río Piedras Campus, PR
1993 Altar Mayor, P.S.122, New York, US
1989 Tres en Uno, Museo de Arte Contemporaneo (MAC), Santurce, PR
A mi no me pisan otra vez, La Tea Experimental Theater, Old San Juan, PR
Altar Mayor, Casa Blanca, San Juan, PR
1987-1997 Member of Pisotón, Dance-Theater Collective, San Juan, PR
1984 Pieza de Balcón, Escuela de Baile, Old San Juan, PR
