Regina José Galindo was born in 1974 in Guatemala City in the middle of a civil war that raged in her country from 1960 to 1996. This experience deeply affected her performance-based work, in which she often tests the limits of her body. Her 2017 video La Sombra (The Shadow) was one of three pieces that were commissioned by Documenta, one of the most important surveys of contemporary art that takes place in Kassel, Germany, every five years. Chased in the video by a Leopard tank to utter exhaustion, Galindo aims to bring attention to Germany’s ranking among the top five weapons manufacturers in the world, pointing to the West’s complicity in the oppression and death of millions of people across the globe.

In 2015 Galindo was awarded the Golden Lion for best artist under 35 in the 51st Venice Biennale. Her work is included in the collections of the Centre Pompidou, the Guggenheim Museum, Tate Modern, and many others.

This work was acquired for the Johnson Museum's permanent collection through the Stern Family Contemporary Art Acquisition Fund (2018.039).

Image © Regina José Galindo