BIO

Born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico, in 1982, Luis Álvaro Sahagún Nuño is a Mexican-Indigenous artist, educator, and practitioner of Curanderismo. He holds a BFA from Southern Illinois University Carbondale and an MFA from Northern Illinois University.

His family's history of migration and labor spans generations. His grandfather came to the United States through the Bracero Program in the 1940s and later worked in Chicago's steel industry. His parents worked in agricultural fields, and Sahagún, a formerly undocumented immigrant, spent a decade working in construction before becoming an artist. His Mexican-Indigenous heritage, experience in construction, and training in product design shape his artistic practice, connecting his hands to those of his ancestors. Together, these histories and experiences form the foundation of his work and the communities he belongs to.

Sahagún is currently a resident artist at Penland School of Craft in North Carolina, where he continues to develop his artistic research, Curandéx Aesthetics, which explores how ritual technologies, such as limpias, soul retrieval, divination, and ceremonial sound, and contemporary art practices can transform one another, opening new possibilities for artistic invention.

Sahagún has exhibited nationally and internationally at institutions including the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Bronx Museum of the Arts, Ogden Contemporary Arts, Roswell Museum of Art, DePaul Art Museum, Freeport Art Museum, Charlie James Gallery, the Chicago Cultural Center, the University of Chicago, ArtFields, Arvika Konsthall (Sweden), the National Museum of Mexican Art, Latchkey Gallery (New York), and the University of Virginia, among others. His work has also been presented at NADA New York, Felix Art Fair Los Angeles, EXPO Chicago, Untitled Miami, and Phillips Auction in New York.

His work is held in the permanent collections of the Detroit Institute of Arts, Davidson College, Fidelity, AltaMed, and the Anderson Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as private collections including those of Amir Shariat, the Allex Ko Collection, and the Beth Rudin DeWoody Collection.

His residency experience includes the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program, the Sally and Don Lucas Artists Residency at Montalvo Arts Center (Saratoga, California), the Chicago Artists Coalition BOLT Residency, the Critical Race Studies Residency at Michigan State University, the WNC Artist-in-Residence Program at the Center for Craft (Asheville, North Carolina), and the Surf Point Residency in Maine.

His awards and recognitions include the 3Arts Award, United States Artists Fellowship, Davidson College's Award for Exceptional Research and Creative Accomplishment and Research Grant, the Center for Craft Community Vitality Award, and recognition on the Creative Capital Shortlist. His work and voice have been featured in Artforum, Hyperallergic, Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune, MundoFOX, NBC, Univision, NPR (WBEZ), and The Latinx Project at New York University.