Antonio Pichillá was born in 1982 in San Pedro La Laguna, Sololá; he lives and works at Lake Atitlán, Guatemala. Pichillá is a graduate of the Rafael Rodríguez Padilla National School of Visual Arts (1999–2003) and a member of TEI-CA Atelier—a science and art research group employing interdisciplinary study methods focused on contemporary art, directed by Roberto Cabrera (2001–2014). He also completed a residency at the Nuevas Raíces Foundation in Antigua, Guatemala, in 2016.
Pichillá has an extensive artistic career centered on research that bridges Western traditions of "abstraction" with the ancestral textile traditions rooted in his family and Mayan heritage. His work is characterized by its experimental and multidisciplinary nature, deeply connected to the landscape and the reinterpretation of the ancestral past within the present.
His work is held in numerous prominent collections, including the Museo Reina Sofía (Spain), Tate (London), Detroit Contemporary Art Museum, Kadist Art Foundation (San Francisco, USA), IL POSTO (Chile), Inter-American Development Bank (Washington), Quinto Lojo Collection (Guatemala), Banco de España Collection (Spain), Space Collection (California), the Luiz Chrysóstomo Collection (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), and the Ernesto and Cecilia Poma Collection, among many others.
He has received numerous international awards and honors and has participated in both solo and group exhibitions, establishing himself as the most acclaimed artist of his region.
He has participated in the 22nd Sesc_Videobrasil Biennial in São Paulo, Brazil; held a solo exhibition titled "Tejiendo el Paisaje" (Weaving the Landscape) at the Museum of Contemporary Art Santa Barbara (California); and exhibited at the Denver Art Museum. He is currently exhibiting at the Barbican Centre in London (UK) and participating in group exhibitions in São Paulo and Milan.
Recently, the artist participated in the 24th Paiz Art Biennial (El Árbol del Mundo) in Guatemala with the work Bailando con una piedra (2022) and the series Espantapájaros y Espantahumanos, which reflect an interest in Indigenous culture, language, heritage, and traditions. Their visual language is characterized by the use of traditional materials and fibers—drawing inspiration from Maya-Tz’utujil beliefs, rituals, and spirituality—to convey messages of identity, heritage, and resistance.
