Cecilia Vicuña
1948–
Introduction
Cecilia Vicuña (born 1948) is a Chilean poet and artist based in New York and Santiago, Chile.
Her work is noted for themes of language, memory, dissolution, extinction and exile. Critics also note the relevance of her work to the politics of ecological destruction, cultural homogenization, and economic disparity, particularly the way in which such phenomena disenfranchise the already powerless. Her commitment to feminist forms and methodologies is considered to be a unifying theme across her diverse body of work, among which her fibre art quipus, knotted or unknotted strings, palabrarmas and precarios, made from natural, delicate materials, stand out. Her practice has been specifically linked to the term eco-feminism.
Cecilia Vicuña was distinguished with Premio Velázquez de Artes Plásticas 2019, Spain's most prominent art award and given out by the Spanish Ministry of Culture to an artist based in the country or from the Ibero-American Community of Nations. The jury statement said that she is receiving the award for her "outstanding work as a poet, visual artist and activist" and her "multidimensional art that interacts with the earth, written language, and weaving.". The same year she was an invited guest artists to the physics laboratory CERN.
Wikidata identifier
Q16117062
Information from Wikipedia, made available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License . Accessed January 2, 2026.
Introduction
Known for her poetic assemblages of found materials called 'precarios' and her work involving weaving, which is very significant in the rituals and myths of the ancient Andes and as a modern metaphor for Vicuña. Vicuña received her art education at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes at the Universidad de Chile in Santiago and the Slade School of Fine Arts, University College, in England. She utilizes perishable materials as a principle material within her artwork.
Country of birth
Chile
Roles
Artist, assemblage artist, installation artist, performance artist, poet, sculptor
ULAN identifier
500114751
Names
Cecilia Vicuña
Information from the Getty Research Institute's Union List of Artist Names ® (ULAN), made available under the ODC Attribution License. Accessed January 2, 2026.
