María Conejo
WORK
My main medium is drawing; over the last five years, I have focused on the representation of the female body.
I want to show the body as a sign, as a communicating gesture.
My work revolves around the body for two main reasons. Firstly, because it’s been subject to much thought during my lifetime. This began with an existential crisis in my childhood: how can our bodies, so insignificant in the scale of the universe, simultaneously be our everything, be the fragile vehicles of our existence? The impact of my first experience of being sexually harassed in a public place forced me to consider my body from a new perspective, to reexamine its relationship with the rest of the world. I had to find a place for these new experiences and thoughts while receiving a religious upbringing that, for a long time, stigmatized my body and sexuality.
This is why it makes sense to me to use the body as a symbol of resilience.
The second big reason is the vast history of the female body as an artistic subject, which is also a history of consistent control by institutions that established the acceptable boundaries of sexuality and, as a function of these, defined its adequate representation. It should be mentioned that most of these were made by artists who society classifies as men. In this historic moment, when subjects such as femicide and violence towards women’s (and other identities’) bodies and psyches have become part of public discourse, I think it is important to reclaim these representations, to propose novel ways of perceiving our bodies.
Drawing is my trench.
BIO
BORN IN 1988 IN CUAUTLA, MORELOS, MEXICO
LIVES AND WORKS IN MEXICO CITY
Visual artist graduated from the Escuela de Diseño del Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes. Since 2010 she has been dedicated to the production of projects and art publications for other artists, galleries and museums.
Her main media is drawing. Makes representations of the female body with the intention of showing it as a sign, a communicating gesture, seeks to generate a different way of perceiving bodies. An essential part of her creative process is the exploration and experimentation with different materials and techniques.
Her work has been exhibited at Barcelona, Mexico and New York in 2019. Her work was included in the Juxtapoz Club House in Art Basel Miami 2018 and in the Invited Projects Section in Salon Acme No. 6 with Machete Galería in 2018, was part of the collective exhibition Los hijos del lago perdido in Galerie LJ, Paris curated by Hellion Gallery. She participated in the exhibition Capítulo Cero [Zero Chapter] at Galería de Arte Mexicano curated byJan Hendrix. She was a finalist in the physical category of the 1st Biennial of Illustration in Mexico organized by Pictoline and the NY Times.
She has twice been awarded the FONCA Young creators category grant, in 2014-15 and 2016- 17.
She is co-founder of Pussypedia.net, a free, bilingual, online encyclopedia about pussy with which she won first place at the 10th National Design Biennial in the professional category of Socially Responsible Design with Social or Participatory Content. The first book illustrated by Maria Conejo: Pussypedia, A Comprehensive Guide was published in August 2021 under the Hachette Books imprint.
Her work has been featured in publications such as The Washington Post, Vice, Vogue and Glamor LatAm, University Magazine, Tierra Adentro Magazine, Casa del Tiempo Magazine, Chilango, Cream Magazine, Gatopardo Magazine etc. She has collaborated with various feminist organizations and human rights defenders to eradicate gender violence.