MARÍA JOSÉ MURILLO
Lives in Brussels, Belgium, and works between Brussels and the Andes of Peru
![]()
![]()
María José Murillo (Arequipa, Peru, 1989) is a textile maker, researcher, and cultural worker born and raised in the south of Peru. Through weaving, she embarks on a path of cultural re-existence—reclaiming and nurturing her Indigenous heritage, long excluded from the Eurocentric education she received in her homeland. Conceiving the woven grid as a matrix of care, memory, identity, collectivity, and continuity, she bridges ancestral traditions with modern techniques to explore and unveil the diverse layers of her cultural identity. Murillo holds a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Studio through the Fiber and Material Studies Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2017–2019), where she was awarded the Pritzker Merit Scholarship, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Painting from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (2006–2011). Following her graduate studies, she led the Education Department at the Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cusco in 2019. In 2021, she co-founded the art collective Noqanchis with Andean weavers from Pitumarca, Cusco. In 2022, she joined the WIELS residency in Brussels as a recipient of the Peruvian ICPNA–Artus scholarship. Most recently, she participated in the Recherches 2024 residency at the Musée de la Tapisserie et des Arts Textiles in Tournai and served on the Board of Directors of the Textile Society of America. Murillo is currently a participating artist in the Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry.
Lives in Brussels, Belgium, and works between Brussels and the Andes of Peru
María José Murillo (Arequipa, Peru, 1989) is a textile maker, researcher, and cultural worker born and raised in the south of Peru. Through weaving, she embarks on a path of cultural re-existence—reclaiming and nurturing her Indigenous heritage, long excluded from the Eurocentric education she received in her homeland. Conceiving the woven grid as a matrix of care, memory, identity, collectivity, and continuity, she bridges ancestral traditions with modern techniques to explore and unveil the diverse layers of her cultural identity. Murillo holds a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Studio through the Fiber and Material Studies Department at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2017–2019), where she was awarded the Pritzker Merit Scholarship, and a Bachelor of Fine Arts (BFA) in Painting from the Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (2006–2011). Following her graduate studies, she led the Education Department at the Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cusco in 2019. In 2021, she co-founded the art collective Noqanchis with Andean weavers from Pitumarca, Cusco. In 2022, she joined the WIELS residency in Brussels as a recipient of the Peruvian ICPNA–Artus scholarship. Most recently, she participated in the Recherches 2024 residency at the Musée de la Tapisserie et des Arts Textiles in Tournai and served on the Board of Directors of the Textile Society of America. Murillo is currently a participating artist in the Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry.