Manuel Chavajay’s work transits through various bi-dimensional, installation, and audiovisual formats. As a Mayan Tz’Utujil artist, he seeks to construct images, actions, and objects that take on poetic forms of the denouncement and vindication of his culture. His personal history, like that of a large percentage of Guatemalans, is pierced by the violence of armed conflict, of which he and his family were direct victims.
Together with other Indigenous artists of his generation, Chavajay conceives contemporary art as a space of healing. His work refers to the wisdom of practices and spirituality linked to the Mayan worldview: a profound connection with nature and the energy present in things, which reflect both specific beliefs as well as ways of life that have resisted the material and symbolic threats of a globalized world.
Between 2009 to 2021, Chavajay has participated in various group and individual exhibitions in Guatemala, México, Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, United States, Scotland, Nicaragua, Brazil, Czech Republic, and Canada. He has shown work at the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara; Cosmopolis # 1.5 Enlarged Intelligence in collaboration with the Centro Pompidou, Chengdu; Àbadakone Continuous Fire Feu continuel, National Gallery of Canada; and Kunsthalle Wien 1, Vienna; as well as in biennials such as Biennial SIART Bolivia, Biennial CURITIVA BRASIL, the seventh Biennial of Visual Arts of the Central American Isthmus BAVIC, and the Arte Paiz Biennials. His work is featured in public institutions including the Ortiz Gurdian museum in Nicargua, Reina Sofia in Spain, the art collection of the inter-American Development Bank New York, and the National Museum of Ottawa in Canada, in addition to private collections.
