Regina José Galindo, the second exhibition in Exit Art’s newly initiated SOLO series, is a ten-year survey of performance and installation work by the Guatemalan artist Regina José Galindo.

For the past decade, Regina’s work has addressed social and political relations in the Americas. She draws attention to these issues by inflicting or mimicking direct, physical violence on her body – as in Himenoplastia (Hymenoplasty) or Perra, during which the artist carved the Spanish word for ‘bitch’ into her leg – placing herself into difficult psychological situations – as in El Dolor en un Panuelo (The Pain in a Handkerchief), during which newspaper articles about victimized women were projected on her naked body – and by performing acts sympathetic to the plight of Guatemalans and to women.

She creates powerful visual metaphors by establishing her body as a site of conflict. Indeed this compelling, and sometimes disturbing, body of work shows Galindo chained, trapped, drowned, brutalized, and anguished. Her body becomes a specimen, a potent representation of brutality and agitation.

Regina José Galindo received the Golden Lion award for Best Young Artist at the 2005 Venice Biennale for her work titled Himenoplastia (Hymenoplasty). Other solo exhibitions include those at Prometeo Gallery, Milan, Italy; Galerie du Jour Agnes B., Paris, France; Artpace, San Antonio, Texas; Museum voor Moderne Kunst Arnhem, Arnhem, The Netherlands; and Modern Art Oxford, Oxford, UK. She has been included in more than 85 group exhibitions on five continents. As a poet, she has published in several international anthologies. This is her first solo exhibition in New York.