My work revolves around issues of time, heritage, and memory and women. By combining my knowledge of literature and storytelling, I established my own language to tell the stories that have been past through oral tradition. The dialogue is between present and past and how time preserves culture. Using cartography and landscape as a starting point, I situate myself as emissary to voice concerns about land, ancestry, culture, technology and progress. My love for modern art provides a platform to find my voice and experience new levels to share millenary art forms like weaving, tapestry and landscape to create deconstructed pixelated images of today using textile as a medium.
Bio
Guatemala-based artist Sylvia Tenenbaum is best known for spreading the stories told by indigenous women in the shape of large scale mosaics and aerial mobiles created from up- cycled traditional mayan dress. Through abstracting maps and landscapes Sylvia Tenenbaum uses the historical, cultural, and politically charged mayan weavings as living plots to shape her own texts, creating an interethnic, urban, and contemporary discourse.
Born in Guatemala City in 1965, Sylvia was raised in Miami, Florida from the age of 16. She studied at Syracuse University (BA 1987) and the School of Fine Arts in Miami to study fashion (AA). While living in New York City she developed her brand called ZYLE specializing in hats and knit accessories (1991). Upon returning to Guatemala (1994), a connection was reestablished with the traditional weavings of the country. She began making decorative cushions with different weaves and textures, experimenting with silk screen printing (2004) and transitioned to weaving throws from chenille in different fibers (2012). In 2013, Sylvia Tenenbaum created her first large commissioned tapestry landscape “III Cortes de III Varas, I y II” and “Amanecer en la Tierra”– a double triptych measuring 7.10 X 1.20 m.
EXHIBITIONS
ONE PERSON EXHIBITIONS
2020
"Lo Innombrable, El memorial de las víctimas del Holocausto”, El Museo del Holocausto Guatemala, Guatemala City, Guatemala.
2018
"Territorios personales", Sol del Río, Guatemala City, Guatemala.
GROUP EXHIBITIONS
2025
“El aliento del cambio” y “cuerpo salpullido”, PuntoDcontemporaneo, Guatemala City, Guatemala
“Weaving Geographies”, Cartografias de la guerra fria en Guatemala , Sol del Rio, Guatemala City, Guatemala
2024
“Silent Witness”, CASA_Aristolochia, Guatemala City, Guatemala
2023
”Gone Beyond”; “Raining Down”, Corporal.Natural.Celestial, SLATOPARRA Gall Miami, U.S.
2022
“Palopó”, Museo Ixchel, Guatemala City, Guatemala.
Colectiva dependencia independencia 4, “Universo Celestial”, Sol del Río, Guatemala City, Guatemala.
“Estudios de Mapas Aéreos”, Heritages Et Syncretisme, SLATOPARRA Gallery, Paris, France.
2021
“Sr. Presidente”, Antónimos Umbrales, Galerias Tiffany, Guatemala City, Guatemala.
“Vuelo”, Equinox Contemporary Women’s Art Exhibit, Art City Gallery, Ventura California.
“Xquiq-Santa Maria de Nebaj”, Equinox, Contemporary Women’s Art Exhibit, Art City Gallery, Ventura California.
2020
“Sr. Presidente”, Video, WTA Pre Bienal Online, Chile
“Lo Innombrable, El memorial de las víctimas del Holocausto”, El Museo del Holocausto Guatemala, Guatemala City, Guatemala.
2017
"dependencia independencia 4", Sol del Río, Guatemala City, Guatemala.
"En sus zapatos", Galería Ana Lucía Gomez, Guatemala City, Guatemala.
2016
"Weaving Geographies - With Monika Bravo", Arthill Gallery, London, England.
"dependencia independencia 3", Sol del Río, Guatemala City, Guatemala.
2015
“The other Art Fair”, London, England.
“Caleidoscopio”, Galería del Centro de Fundacion G&t Continental, Guatemala City, Guatemala.
2014
"De Corazón", Galería del Centro de Fundación G&t Continental, Guatemala City, Guatemala.
2013
"Vivir de Corazón", Museo Ixchel del Traje Indigena, Guatemala City, Guatemala.
2017
World Textile Art Bienal, Uruguay.
2018
London Design Biennale, Guatemala pavilion, UK.
Winner of the London Design Biennale 2018 PUBLIC MEDAL voted for by the visitors
“Women weavers:The warp of memory”, Ideobox Artspace, Miami, Fl.
COLLECTIONS
Marriot Courtyard Lobby and Business Center Collection, Guatemala City, Guatemala
Harmony of the Seas Collection, Royal Caribbean International.
Casa de Dios Collection, Guatemala City, Guatemala
Integra Medical Center, Guatemala City, Guatemala
Avita, Guatemala City, Guatemala.