Mev Luna is a research-based artist whose practice spans performance, film, new media, and text. Through an autoethnographic methodology, their work reappraises history to identify fictions governing contemporary life and considers issues of institutional access, incarceration, and how images of marginalized groups are circulated and controlled. Recent exhibitions include the international solo “Warped Terrain” at laNao Galería, Mexico City. Luna’s time-based works have premiered at SFMOMA and Artists’ Television Access, San Francisco, The Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago, and Kino Moviemento in Berlin. They’ve given talks at the Bauhaus-Universität Weimar, Northwestern University, Vanderbilt University, Bard College, and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, among others. Their practice has been supported by grants and fellowships from the Art Matters Foundation, New York Council on the Arts, Mellon Initiative for Inclusive Faculty Excellence at The New School, Queer|Art, and by residencies including MASS MoCA, Cobertizo (Mexico), Chicago Artists Coalition, SOMA Summer Program, and Shandaken: Storm King. Luna was a Visiting Critic in the MFA Painting Department at Yale School of Art in the fall of 2024, and is currently Assistant Professor of Contemporary Art Practice and Theory at Parsons School of Design, The New School where they teach on artistic research, film, video, and carcerality.

(Contact)

(Awards, Residencies, and Related Activities)

2025

  • Artist in Residence, Mass MoCA, North Adams, MA (forthcoming)

2024

  • Artist in Residence, Cobertizo, Jilotepec, Estado de México, MX

2023

  • Faculty Fellow, Mellon Initiative at The New School, New York, NY

2021

  • Media Assistance Fund, WaveFarm/New York Council on the Arts, New York, NY

2020

  • Queer Arts Mentorship, Mentee, Film, Queer | Art, New York, NY

2019

  • Visual Arts Project Support Grant, Illinois Arts Council Agency, Chicago, IL

2018

  • Individual Artist Grant, Illinois Arts Council Agency, Chicago, IL
  • Grantee, Art Matters Foundation, New York, NY
  • BOLT Residency, Chicago Artist Coalition, Chicago IL

2017

  • SOMA Summer Program Resident, Mexico City, MX

2015

  • Fellowship, The Earl and Brenda Shapiro Center for Research and Collaboration, Chicago, IL

(Selected Exhibitions)

  • 2022 WarpedTerrain, La Nao Galeria, Mexico City, MX (solo)
  • 2020 Empathy Fatigue, Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago, IL
  • 2019 Far from the distance we see, Chicago Artists Coalition, Chicago, IL (solo)
  • 2019 EXPO Chicago, Chicago Artists Coalition booth, curated by Sheridan Anderson Tucker (solo)
  • 2019 Dead Future(s), Heaven Gallery, Chicago, IL
  • 2018 Call A Mom Phone Bank, 062 Gallery, Chicago, IL (solo)
  • 2018 Education as the Practice of Freedom, curated by Jasmine Wahi, YoungArts, Miami, FL
  • 2017 SAIC MFA Exhibition, guest curated by Julie Rodrigues Widholm, Sullivan Galleries, School of the Art Institute, Chicago, IL
  • 2017 Chicago 9, curated by William Cordova, PRIZM Art Fair, Miami, FL
  • 2017 Between the Real and Utopia, curated by Jameson Paige, SITE Gallery, School of the Art Institute, Chicago, IL
  • 2017 How to Avoid Trauma, SOMA Headquarters, Mexico City, MX
  • 2017 I Still Wear My Mom’s Brown Sweater, COLLABO, Chicago, IL
  • 2016 Will I See You in the Future? New Blood Festival TEN, Links Hall, Chicago, IL
  • 2016 Scoring and Keeping Score, Defibrillator Gallery, Chicago, IL
  • 2016 Technical Images, Elastic Arts, Chicago, IL
  • 2016 1,422 Miles At a Distance, Threewalls @ Rational Park Gallery, Chicago, IL
  • 2015 Out of Site: Unexpected Encounters of Public Performance, Chicago, IL
  • 2013 Feast of the Beast, MIX: Queer Experimental Film Festival, New York, NY
  • 2011 The Weight of the Shape-Shift Body, Oakapolis Gallery, Oakland, CA (solo)
  • 2011 Nobody Makes Sculpture Now Days…, Oliver Art Center, Oakland, CA
  • 2011 Queer It Yourself: Tools for Survival, SOMArts, San Francisco, CA

(Lectures and Symposia)

2025

  • “Confined Terrain: Imaging Intergenerational Trauma,” presented at the Mellon Initiative for Inclusive Faculty Excellence, May 2-3, 2025 (forthcoming)
  • “Para-Protest Practices and Restoring Affinity,” presented at College Art Association 113th Annual Conference, New York, NY, February 12–15, 2025

2024

  • Pat Parker/Vito Russo Library Relaunch Event,” Panel with Emily Drabinski, Hal Schrieve, and Gabrielle Williams, moderator, The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center, New York, NY.
  • Visiting Critic, Yale School of Art, MFA Painting, New Haven, CT.
  • Lens of Impact: Queering Design, moderator, sponsored by Swissnex, Parsons School of Design, New York, NY, October 23.

2023

  • Guest Reviewer, Yale School of Art, Painting, New Haven, Connecticut.
  • Visual Arts & Tech Lecture: Mev Luna, speaker, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ.
  • “The 68th Annual Flaherty Film Seminar,” Queer World Mending: Conversation between Amina Ross and Wu Tsang, moderator, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, NY.

2022

  • 13th International SAR Conference for Artistic Research, Bauhaus Universität, Weimar, DE

2021

  • “2021 ACAID Symposium Must Give Us Pause: Diversity and Sustainability,” Strategies and Resources on Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice from Parsons First Year Program, speaker, Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design (virtual)

2018

  • Theater of the Unexpected, In-Progress: Marcela Torres in Conversation with Mev Luna, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL
  • “In-Motion: Performance and Unsettling Borders,” Roundtable Conversation, discussant, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL
  • Which Ancestors Do We Run Towards?, organizer and moderator, P.O.W.E.R. Project, Art Leaders of Color Network, Comfort Station Logan Square, Chicago, IL
  • “DiasporX,” Advance Latine Culture, speaker, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Chicago, IL

2017

  • Which Ancestors Do We Run Towards? In Conversation with Anna Martine Whitehead, FLEXSpace, Sullivan Galleries, School of the Art Institute, Chicago, IL
  • “Inaugural Berkeley/Stanford Symposium: Not-At-Home, Migration Pilgrimage, and Displacement in Art, Design, and Visual Culture,” Fact Checking My Father, lecture-performance, SFMoMA, San Francisco, CA
  • Pointing to Between the Real and Utopia: A Performative Panel, moderated by Mechtild Widrich and Máire Witt O’Neil, speaker, SAIC Neiman Center, Chicago, IL.

2016

  • Performance Grad Lecture: Mev Luna + Emilio Rojas, speaker, School of the Art Institute of Chicago Performance, Chicago, IL.
  • “Shapiro Fellowship Research Symposium,” presenter, International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago, IL.
  • Going Off(Shore) Learning Symposium, presenter, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL.

2010

  • “Queer Art & Visual Culture Symposium,” Wurst, Then Queer: Art and the Abject, Helzel Boardroom, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA

(Screenings )

  • 2022 Far from the distance we see, Cine Latine, Gene Siskel Film Center, Chicago, IL
  • 2022 Far from the distance we see, Kino Mo
  • 2013 Sharecropping from the Invisibility Suit Series, MIX NYC: Craftivism Curated by Coral Short, New York, NY
  • 2013 Open Your Golden Gates, Film shorts curated by Coral Short, Montreal, CA

(Cinematography and Editing )

  • 2020 Z = |Z/Z•Z-1 Mod 2|-1: Lavender Town Syndrome, Andrew Norman Wilson, Line Producer
  • 2019 The Latest Sun is Sinking Fast, In-progress feature by Melika Bass, Co-Editor
  • 2018 Creature Companions, Melika Bass, Premiere BAM CinemaFest, Editing Consultant

(Film Programming)

  • 2022 City of Lost Souls, co-programmed with Madsen Minax, presented by T. Fleischmann, Queer|Art Film Series, IFC Center, New York, NY, May 9
  • 2022 Belly, co-programmed with Madsen Minax, presented by Legacy Russell and Anaïs Duplan, Queer|Art Film Series, IFC Center, New York, NY, April 11
  • 2022 The Exiles, co-programmed with Madsen Minax, presented by Jeffrey Gibson, Queer|Art Film Series, IFC Center, New York, NY, March 21
  • 2022 Come Back to the Five and Dime, Jimmy Dean, Jimmy Dean, co-programmed with Madsen Minax, featuring CAConrad, Queer|Art Film Series, February 14
  • 2010 Feast of the Beast: Wurst, then Queer, programmed six films by other artists, Artist Television Access, San Francisco, CA, May 7

(Peer Reviewed Conference Papers)

  • 2025 “Archival Agility: Breaking with the ‘Document’,” session chair, ASAP/16: Worldmaking/Worldbreaking, Association for the Study of Arts of the Present, Houston, TX, October 23-25 “Confined Terrain: Imaging Intergenerational Trauma,” Mapping Empire, Memory, and Liberation: Archival and Affective Approaches to Subaltern Knowledge, panelist, The World As It Is: Celebrating Collective Transformation Conference, New York, NY, May 2-3 “Para-Protest Practices and Restoring Affinity,” How do you throw a brick through the window…: Expanding Publics and Embodiment, panelist, College Art Association, New York, NY, February 12–15
  • 2025 “Confined Terrain: Imaging Intergenerational Trauma,” Mapping Empire, Memory, and Liberation: Archival and Affective Approaches to Subaltern Knowledge, panelist, The World As It Is: Celebrating Collective Transformation Conference, New York, NY, May 2-3
  • 2025 “Para-Protest Practices and Restoring Affinity,” How do you throw a brick through the window…: Expanding Publics and Embodiment, panelist, College Art Association, New York, NY, February 12–15
  • 2022 “Materializing Citations: Autotheory and Artistic Practice,” Mend, Blend, Attend, panelist, Society for Artistic Research, Bauhaus Universität, Weimar, DE
  • 2021 “Strategies and Resources on Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice from Parsons First Year Program,” presenter, Must Give Us Pause: Diversity and Sustainability, The Association of Independent Colleges of Art and Design, online, November 5
  • 2018 “Roundtable Conversation: Mev Luna, Daniel Quiles, Hendrik Folkerts, and Meida Teresa McNeal,” In-Motion: Performance and Unsettling Borders, Keynote presenter, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL, April 28
  • 2017 “Fact Checking My Father,” Lecture-Performance. Berkeley/Stanford Symposium: Not-At-Home, Migration Pilgrimage, and Displacement in Art, Design, and Visual Culture, SFMoMA, San Francisco, CA, April 8
  • 2016 Going Off(Shore) Learning Symposium, presenter, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, April 9

(Panel Discussion and Symposia)

  • 2025 Technology and Objects, moderator, Gender Matters 2025: Gendered Bodies, Gendered Justice, Gender & Sexualities Studies Institute, The New School, New York, NY, April 17-18
  • 2025 Lens of Impact: Artists in the Archives, presenter, Perspectives on Art and Design, Swissnex and the School of Art and Design History and Theory, Parsons School of Design, New York, NY, April 10
  • 2024 Lens of Impact: Queering Design, moderator, Swissnex and the School of Art and Design History and Theory, Parsons School of Design, New York, NY, October 23
  • 2024 “Pat Parker/Vito Russo Library Relaunch Event,” Panel with Emily Drabinski, Hal Schrieve, and Gabrielle Williams, moderator, The Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender Community Center, New York, NY, October 13
  • 2024 Captives of Heartbr(ache): A Critics Page Discussion, panelist, moderated by Ksenia M. Soboleva, Brooklyn Rail, virtual, February 26
  • 2022 Land Utilization, exhibition conversation with Fabiola Iza, laNao Galería, Mexico City, MX
  • 2023 Queer World Mending, Program 8: Conversation between Amina Ross and Wu Tsang, moderator, 68th Annual Flaherty Film Seminar, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, New York, NY, June 20
  • 2023 Presentation, Visual Art & Technology Spring Lecture, Stevens Institute of Technology, Hoboken, NJ, March 22
  • 2018 “DiasporX,” Advance LatinX Culture, speaker, Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, IL July 21
  • 2018 “Which Ancestors Do We Run Towards?” P.O.W.E.R. Project, presenter, Art Leaders of Color Network, Comfort Station Logan Square, Chicago, IL, June 2
  • 2018 “Confined Terrain: The Brown Body in Landscape, Detention, and Technology,” P.O.W.E.R. Project, co-presenter with Risa Puleo, Art Leaders of Color Network, Comfort Station Logan Square, Chicago, IL, June 17
  • 2018 “Theater of the Unexpected, In-Progress: Marcela Torres in Conversation with Mev Luna,” moderator, Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL, March 20
  • 2017 “Pointing to Between the Real and Utopia: A Performative Panel,” panelist, Moderated by Mechtild Widrich and Máire Witt O’Neil, Neiman Center, School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Chicago, IL, November 16
  • 2017 “Which Ancestors Do We Run Towards? In Conversation with Anna Martine Whitehead,” FLEXSpace, Sullivan Galleries, School of the Art Institute, Chicago, IL May 4
  • 2017 Shapiro Fellowship Research Symposium, presenter, International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago, IL, March 18
  • 2010 “Wurst, Then Queer: Art and the Abject,” presenter, Queer Art & Visual Culture Symposium, California College of the Arts, San Francisco, CA

(Artist Bibliography and Interviews)

  • 2020 Paige, Jameson. “Rendering as a capacity through which to see: in conversation with Mev Luna,” Public Parking Magazine, Sept. 14, 2020. https://thisispublicparking.com/posts/rendering-as-a-capacity-through-which-to-see-in-conversation-with-mev-luna
  • 2020 Welsh, Gabrielle. “Fatigued by the Everyday? These Artists Are, Too,” Hyperallergic, Feb. 13, 2020. https://hyperallergic.com/542688/fatigued-by-the-everyday-these-artists-are-too/
  • 2020 Wong, Maggie. “Tensions of Access: Empathy Fatigue // Andrew Rafacz,” The Seen: Chicago’s International Journal of Contemporary & Modern Art, April 20, 2020. https://theseenjournal.org/tensions-of-access/
  • 2019 Singh, Pia. “Top 10 Boundary-Pushing Works at EXPO Chicago 2019 (#3)” New City Art, September 22, 2019. https://art.newcity.com/2019/09/22/ top-10-boundary-pushing-works-at-expo-chicago-2019/
  • 2019 Finley, Madeline, and Sarah H. Reynolds. “Season 4: Interview with Mev Luna and Julian Flavin.” THIS MOMENT HERE. Podcast, audio, June 19, 2019. https://www.listennotes.com/podcasts/ this-moment-here/season-4-interview-with-mev-qz mOREy 7PY/
  • 2019 Lozano, Ivan. “Season 1, Episode 1: Mev Luna.” Archives + Futures: Latinx and Indigenous artists of the Americas. Podcast, audio, September 6, 2019. https://soundcloud.com/archivesandfutures/s01ep01-mev-luna
  • 2018 Hawbaker, KT. “Talkin’ bodies at Chicago Artist Coalition; Mev Luna is available to take your call at 062 Gallery,” Chicago Tribune, April 25, 2018. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2018/04/25/talkin-bodies-at-chicago-artists-coalition-mev-luna-is-available-to-take-your-call-at-062-gallery/
  • 2018 Visualist Chicago, “Top V. Weekend Picks (4/19-4/25),” Bad at Sports, April 19, 2018. https://badatsports.com/2018/top-v-weekend-picks-4-19-4-25/
  • 2017 Hawbaker, KT. “Small Print sparkles, a special view of Utopia,” Chicago Tribune, December 7, 2017. https://www.chicagotribune.com/2017/ 12/07/small-print-sparkles-a-special-view-of-utopia/