MARÍA JOSÉ MURILLO
Lives in Brussels, Belgium, and works between Brussels and the Andes of Peru
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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 re-existence, reclaiming and nurturing her Indigenous cultural heritage, historically excluded from the Eurocentric education she received in her homeland. Conceiving the woven grid as a matrix of care, memory, identity, continuity, and transformation, Murillo articulates Indigenous ancestral traditions with colonial and contemporary techniques to explore the notion of “complementary contradiction,” navigating the layered complexity of her Latin American identity. She holds a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Studio, Fiber and Material Studies, from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2017–2019) as a recipient of 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, Murillo led the Education Department at the Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cusco in 2019. In 2021, she co-founded the art collective Noqanchis with weavers from Pitumarca, Cusco. Murillo participated in the WIELS residency in Brussels in 2022 (ICPNA–Artus Scholarship), and the Recherches residency at the Musée de la Tapisserie et des Arts Textiles in Tournai in 2024. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Textile Society of America and participated in Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry in 2025. Currently, her work, together with the collective Noqanchis, is featured in the exhibition On Loss and Absence: Textiles of Mourning and Survival at the Art Institute of Chicago (Sept 6, 2025 – Mar 15, 2026).
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 re-existence, reclaiming and nurturing her Indigenous cultural heritage, historically excluded from the Eurocentric education she received in her homeland. Conceiving the woven grid as a matrix of care, memory, identity, continuity, and transformation, Murillo articulates Indigenous ancestral traditions with colonial and contemporary techniques to explore the notion of “complementary contradiction,” navigating the layered complexity of her Latin American identity. She holds a Master of Fine Arts (MFA) in Studio, Fiber and Material Studies, from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (2017–2019) as a recipient of 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, Murillo led the Education Department at the Centro de Textiles Tradicionales del Cusco in 2019. In 2021, she co-founded the art collective Noqanchis with weavers from Pitumarca, Cusco. Murillo participated in the WIELS residency in Brussels in 2022 (ICPNA–Artus Scholarship), and the Recherches residency at the Musée de la Tapisserie et des Arts Textiles in Tournai in 2024. She has served on the Board of Directors of the Textile Society of America and participated in Sharjah Biennial 16: to carry in 2025. Currently, her work, together with the collective Noqanchis, is featured in the exhibition On Loss and Absence: Textiles of Mourning and Survival at the Art Institute of Chicago (Sept 6, 2025 – Mar 15, 2026).