MIA EVE
Mia Eve (Chicago, 1984) is a multidisciplinary artist whose individual practice and community collaborations focus on radical resistance. From 2009-2014, she co-founded and directed EDELO (En Donde Era la ONU / Where the United Nations Used to BE). A centripetal community and artistic space of collective activities in Chiapas, Mexico, the project challenged the notion of a traditional ‘artist residency’ by placing visiting artists alongside rural autonomous communities that have long been creating a rich visual culture, using performance, theater, and poetry to demand drastic social, political, and economic change.
Mia has been nomadic since 2014, she makes site-specific work in terrains of spiritual, social, and cultural resistance. She typically is outside the "art world," working in globally engaged collectives of artistic practice, she incorporates healing strategies from pre-colonial practices and uses magical realist aesthetics to explore the psyche. Engaging whole communities, these projects aim to counteract eugenic civic paradigms and connect art to radical political/communal strategies for liberation.
Mia received her MFA from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. A cofounder of EDELO, she is a lead artist in other notable collaborations such as Zapantera Negra, Embassy of the Refugee, and Embajada de Inutil. Select presentations include the Creative Time Summit and Queens Museum, and she is the recipient of the State of Maryland Independent Artist Award. She is currently a artist and resident with UCSC Visualizing Abolition and An Aesthetics of Resilience.
I am an artist that is living and creating with a disability. I became paraplegic in 2007 with a near death experience that opened a deep understanding of a shared pain and resilience that is felt by over one-billion disabled people worldwide making us the world’s biggest minority, an expanding number due to heightened environmental catastrophes and a world run by supremist values. Since then I have recognized my body as a political territory, and the communal body as well, a place where we can demand safety and integrated multidimensional health as a basic human right.
My collaborative work sees the body as the carrier of memory, both of traumas, violence, as well as of wisdom and resilience. When the body, ritual, and the object is juxtaposed within environments of tension, then the very histories of the body can
manifest its knowledge. This becomes the center of my work, exploring painting, sculpture, performance as ritual, oral histories, invisible theater and video documentation as a form of demanding a hyper visibility that otherwise would not exist without the arts. Life is a Dream
MIA EVE ROLLOW
EDUCATION
School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago Illinois USA
Masters of Fine Arts, Sculpture, 2009.
University of Maryland, College Park, USA
Bachelors of Fine Arts with Honors, Mixed Media, 2006.
CURRENT: An Aesthetics of Resilience, IAS Art + Science Program Artist-In-Residence, UCSC, 2023-2025
CURRENT: Residency with Visualizing Abolition, UCSC, 2023-2025
CURRENT PROJECTS: Self Directed Residency, Community Mural Project, Mapuche Community, Lleu Lleu Chile, 2024
SELECT SOLO AND GROUP EXHIBITIONS
EL GIRO GRÁFICO Zapantera Negra, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain.
MUAC Mexico City November 2022
Contemporary Art Space, Montevideo Uruguay 2023
Museo de Monedas, Santiago de Chile, 2024
BIG INK Sarah Silberman Gallery, Montgomery College, Maryland 2022
AFRICAN MEMORY Village De Arts, Dakar Biennial, Senegal 2022
EMBASSY OF REFUGEE TinyBe, Metzler Park, Frankfurt Germany 2021
IF I DEVOTED MY LIFE TO ONE OF ITS FEATHERS Kunsthalle Wein, Vienna Germany 2021
EMBASSY OF THE REFUGEE El Chaparral, Tijuana Mexico 2021
MAPA DESCOLONIAL Zapantera Negra, Centro Cultural Universitario Tlatelolco, Caltilolli Mexico City 2021
WALKING THE BEAST Fresno Art Galleries, Fresno CA 2021
SOMOS FRAGMENTOS DE LA LUZ QUE IMPIDE QUE TODO SEA NOCHE Institute of Radical Imagination, Centro Cultural Corrala Museo de Artes y Tradiciones Populares, Madrid Spain 2021
THE SAILING STONES ACT Solo Retrospective, VisArts, Rockville Maryland 2020
YARD OF THE YARD Swale House, Governor’s Island, New York 2020
HUNDRED HEROINS 52nd film online film festival, curated by Lisl Ponger. 2020
WE ARE WORTHY OF LIFE Deheisha Refugee Camp, West Bank Palestine 2019
FESTIVAL TECNOFEMINISTA CYBOGRRRLS CINEMA Mexico City, Mexico 2019
LATINX: ART BEYOND THE BORDER Delta College, Stockton CA 2019
ELEMENTS OF VOGUE. UN CASO DE ESTUDIO DE PERFORMANCE RADICAL, Zapantera Negra, Museo del Chopo de la Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City 2019
LOS HUECOS DEL AGUA: ARTE ACTUAL DE PUEBLOS ORIGINARIOS Zapantera Negra, Museo del Chopo de la Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, Mexico City 2019
UN MUNDO DONDE CEPAN MUCHOS MUNDOS Zapantera Negra, Casa de las Americas, Havana Cuba 2018
SANTOS Elambo Bajo EZLN, Chiapas Mexico 2018
FIRST INTERNATIONAL GATHERING FOR WOMEN IN RESISTANCE Morelia Caracol, Chiapas Mexico 2018
DO SILENCIO A MEMORIA Paco de Artes, Sau Paulo Brazil, 2018
A DECOLONIAL ATLAS: STRATEGIES IN CONTEMPORARY ART OF THE AMERICAS Traveling exhibition:
Union College, Mandeville Gallery, Schenectady NY 2017
Tufts University Art Gallery, Medford MA 2018
Vincent Price Art Museum, Los Angeles CA 2018
OUTBURST EM Wolfman Books, Oakland CA 2017
KLANGHAUS Z-Space, San Francisco CA 2017
CHASING THE BEAST El Buen Pastor & La 72 Migrant Safe Houses, Mexico 2016
ICONS & SYMBOLS OF THE BORDERLAND Juntos Art Association, Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin TX 2016
SOMOS ANIMAL Piña Palmera Centro de Atención infantil, Oaxaco Mexico 2016
RESISTENCIAS SONORA La Gozadera, Mexico City 2016
RESURFACING Mission Cultural Center, San Francisco CA 2015
URGENT ART La Peña Cultural Center, Berkeley CA 2015
OUR BUILT CITY Six-month director, Red Poppy Art House, San Francisco CA 2015
MAKING A SCENE Somarts, San Francisco CA 2015
CHOREOGRAPHING SOCIAL MOVEMENTS IN THE AMERICAS, Zapantera Negra, Hemispheric Institute of Performance and Politics, Leonard & Bina Ellen Art Gallery, Montréal, Canada 2014
IN MOTION Utah Museum Of Contemporary Art, Salt Lake City Utah 2014
URGENT ART La Galeria, SCLC Chiapas MX 2013
EL PLANTON Performance Political Prisoners, SCLC Chiapas MX 2013
LONARTE Public Art, Calheta Portugal 2013
THE OTHER CAMPAIGN Sculptural Performance, ElAmbo Bajo Chiapas, MX 2013
UNA Universidad Autónoma de Chiapa, SCLC Chiapas MX 2013
NO PASA NADA Galería el Cerillo, SCLC Chiapas, MX 2012
CERVANTINOS BARROCO Centro Cultural el Carmen, SCLC Chiapas, MX 2010
TIERRA POR ORO E.D.E.L.O, SCLC Chiapas, MX 2009
TIDE Sullivan Galleries, School Of The Art Institute of Chicago, IL 2009
LECTURES
ARTIST TALK With Caleb Duarte, Headlands Artist Residency, California, 2023.
ZAPANTERA NEGRA Latin American Embroidery Conference, MUAC Museum, Mexico City, 2023.
A DREAM OF BEING: ARTE URGENTE UCSD, California, 2022.
COLLECTIVE ART, EDUCATION & RADICAL RESISTANCE ABC No Rio, NY, 2022.
ZAPANTERA NEGRA Mil Mundos Bookstore, Brooklyn NY, June 2022
ZAPANTERA NEGRA Interference Archive, Brooklyn NY, May 2022
BODY, LAND, DREAMS Visual Voices, George Mason University, MD, 2021
ART AND SCIENCE FICTION IN THE AMERICAS Queens Museum, New York, 2019
PSYCHOMAGIC School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 2019
DISABILITY AND RITUAL La Ensenansa, SCLC, Chiapas, 2018.
SUBTERRANEA AL ESPACIO Montgomery College, Rockville, MD, 2017
EXPERIMENTAL EXERCISE OF FREEDOM School Art Institute of Chicago, IL, 2016
COMPARTE Zapatista Conference, University of the Earth, SCLC, Mexico, 2016
ART AS A DIGNIFIED REBELLION Montgomery College, Rockville, MD, 2016
EDELO Creative Time Summit, New York, NY, 2012.
EDELO Stanford University, International Honors program, Chiapas, Mexico, 2011
BODY POLITIC Montgomery College, Rockville, MD, 2010.
THE WORD School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, 2009
PRESS AND PUBLICATIONS
IMAGINARIOS REBELDES puesta en practica en Chile de una metodología creativa y solidaria global, Barbarie online press, July 2024
THE WORK OF ARTE URGENTE PERFORMATIVE ACTS OF POLITICAL AND ARTISTIC IMAGINATION LALVC Journal, Rebecca M Schreiber, Featuring EDELO work, 2022
PERFORMING SANCTUARY Migration and Society, Rebecca M Schreiber, Featuring EDELO work, Issue 4, 2021
PIE DE PAGINA La Orilla de Paris Saluda al Escuadrón Zapatista, Public mural Zapantera Negra, Paris France, July 10, 2021
INSURGENT IMAGINATION The Sailing Stones Act, Podcast Interview Episode 2, December 2020
GATOPERRO Historias de un mundo distinto, Latin American magazine, Featuring Zapantera Negra, December 2020
ZAPANTERA NEGRA BOOK Common Notions, New York, NY, 2016
New Updated Edition published in 2022
MISSION LOCAL Residents Shape Gentrification, J.J. Barrow, June, 2015
THE GUARDIAN Chronicle of a Death Untold, Oliver Laughland, June, 2015
SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE Big, Little S.F. Arts Groups Bury Hatchet, Divvy Up City Money, Emily Green, May, 2015
CREATIVE TIME REPORTS 20 Years After NAFTA Many Worlds are Posible, December 16, 2013
EL TECOLOTE Zapantera Negra at SFSU, January, 2013
MIRADA SUR Zapantera Negra, August, 2012
MIRADA SUR Para Quien Exige La Mejor Information, Victor Vieyra Santamaría, November, 2011
DIARIO DE CHIAPAS Arte en Todo Chiapas, Jeny Pascacio, September, 2011
CUARTO PODER Tierra Por Oro Belleza Por Terror, Victor Vieyra Santamaría, June, 2010
AWARDS
INDEPENDENT ARTIST AWARD Maryland State Awardee, March 2021
CREATIVE CAPITAL Embassy of the Refugee, EDELO, 2020
CULTIVATE April 2020
FOUNDATION FOR CONTEMPORARY ART Emergency Grant, March 2020
DORIS DUKE CHARITABLE FOUNDATION EDELO, 2017
CREATIVE TIME Open call winner, EDELO, New York, NY, 2014
FENDENSEN FOUNDATION, EDELO, Oaxaca, Mexico, 2010.
SCHOOL OF THE ART INSTITUTE OF CHICAGO Scholarship, IL, 2006-2009
UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND CAPA, MD, 2002-2006
ONGOING PROJECTS
These projects are collaborative in which Mia Eve is one of the main lead artists
EMBAJADA DE INÚTIL
2007- Present
EDI is a social practice project that examines how ableism, colonialism, patriarchy and white supremacy have traumatized disabled bodies generationally. EDI (Embassy of the Useless) is the absurd that mimics formal diplomacy, creating a parallel world to that of ableism promoted by monolithic capitalism. The title comes from a derogatory Spanish term for the disabled, “inútil”, translated back into English as “useless”. Here we use poetic acts to transmit a new vision.
EDELO MIGRANTE
2014 - Present
EDELO is an alias name Mia works from with co-founder Caleb Duarte. Under this umbrella, artist run projects of globally engaged collectives are formed that create expressions of underground communities through distributed authorship. To that end, the work demands transdisciplinary creative forms in sculpture, performance, and community-based public intervention. Through communal living, interviews, film screenings, workshops, participants engage in a shared dreamscape.
EDELO (En Donde Era La Onu/ Where The United Nations Used To Be)
2009 -2014
EDELO was an artist run project in Chiapas, Mexico that created sculptural performances and community events through relational aesthetics, social practice, and social sculpture. EDELO, had a residency program for international artists and local communities that promoted collaborative exploration of diverse disciplines through intercultural exchange, and functioned as a safe house for the community. The work at its core focused on the lessons and use of art by the EZLN, the Zapatista autonomous indigenous movement in Chiapas.
EMBASSY OF THE REFUGEE
2014 - Present
Embassy of the Refugee are collaborative, interactive temporary sculptural performances that symbolically appropriates the authority of the state--a nomadic Embassy that is sanctioned by its own creators as an autonomous territory for sanctuary and creativity. Nomadic Project Created with Refugees, Asylum Seekers and Communities in Movement.
ZAPANTERA NEGRA
2011-present
Artistic encounters between the Black Panther Minister of Culture, Zapatistas, and other artists from the Americas, uniting the bold aesthetics, revolutionary dreams, and dignified declarations of two leading emancipatory political movements. Activities of this collaboration include creating community murals and art pieces for traveling exhibitions, presentations, and cultural Exchange.
