www.linkedin.com/in/claudiaruizgustafson
Claudia Ruiz Gustafson is a Peruvian visual artist based in Framingham, Massachusetts. Her practice includes photography, collage, assemblage, poetry, and artist books. Her Peruvian heritage and cross-cultural experiences are important influences in her work, which often explores memory, identity, displacement, history, and the ways we see and understand images.
Her latest project, Mi país imaginado / My Imagined Country, explores imperialist and supremacist thinking and the construction of history, the displacement of cultural objects, and photography and the white/colonial gaze. The project brings together photography, collage, writing, book sculptures, slideshows, and installation, incorporating archival materials throughout.
Ruiz Gustafson was an Artist-in-Residence at the Center for Photography at Woodstock and a Fellow at the Houston Center for Photography in 2022. She received a 2021 Massachusetts Cultural Council Photography Fellowship. Her projects La ciudad en las nubes and Terra obscura were selected for Photolucida Critical Mass Top 50, and La ciudad en las nubes also received the Michael Reichmann Project Grant.
Her work has been exhibited in the United States and internationally and is held in the permanent collections of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, Danforth Art Museum, and the Center for Photography at Woodstock.
Alongside her art practice, Ruiz Gustafson works as a curator and cultural producer, creating exhibitions, programs, and cultural events that bring people together. Her work has included collaborating with artists and community partners, developing exhibitions, and producing community-based projects that connect people with art, culture, and place.