Zamara Cuyún

Zamara Cuyún is, for better or worse, a product of colonization, with Indigenous roots in Guatemala – born and raised in Minneapolis.  A self-taught, “Gringindia” artist of de-Indigenized Highland Maya ancestry, she works in acrylics, using elements of Guatemalan and Maya history, iconography, and worldview - sometimes to explore and create a vibrant, colorful, imaginary dream universe and, at other times, to represent the restless, violent, and unsettling world we are often forced to inhabit.  The themes that inspire her work and to which she is drawn back to, time and again, include Indigenous identity (her own, as well as that represented in Guatemalan society), the history of colonization and resistance, the persecution and genocide of Indigenous populations, and the call for social justice, reconciliation, revitalization, and decolonization and the central role and strength of women in this process.  

Since 2019, Zamara has participated in a number of collaborative public art projects - including the St. Paul City Council Chambers Art Project. In 2022, she was awarded a Forecast Public Arts Early Career Artist Project Grant for “Los Ancestros Wicháhuηkake” at La Mexicana Supermercado in Minneapolis, a mural in collaboration with Thomasina Topbear, Claudia Valentino, COPLA Murals, and countless community members. She also serves as a member of the Serpentina Arts leadership committee, an organization fostering the creativity and professional development of Minnesota Latinx visual artists.