Chelsea Culprit (b. 1984, Paducah, KY) lives and works in Mexico City. Her work entangles representations of the body’s capacity for work, play, display, expression, the performed authenticity of identity, and the intractability of freedom and personal bondage. Moving freely between the pictorial imagery of folk art and the materiality of the real world, Culprit’s works are composed of feelings as much as descriptions. Working variously with painting, neon light, sculptural assemblage and installation, her work uses a composite approach to translate the ideologies of female identity.
She earned her BFA in 2007 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Recent solo exhibitions include Malas Madres, Lulu, Mexico City (2019); Fear of Seduction, Queer Thoughts at Maureen Paley, London (2019); DMing Purgatory, Queer Thoughts, New York (2018); Fishnets, Uma Certa Falta de Coerencia, Porto, Portugal (2017); Right to Remain Elegant, Galeria La Esperanza at Barba Azul, Mexico City (2017); and Miss Universe, Yautepec, Mexico City (2016). Culprit’s work featured in group exhibitions at Palais de Tokyo, Paris; Museum of Modern Art Warsaw, Poland; Revolver Gallery, Lima; Australian Centre for Contemporary Art, Melbourne; Museo de Arte Carillo Gil, Mexico City; and TANK Shanghai, China.