Teresa Margolles

Teresa Margolles transforms the physical remnants of violent death — blood-stained fabric, morgue water, bullet-scarred walls — into sculptural installations and photographic works that refuse to let the viewer look away. Trained as a forensic pathologist and once employed as a mortician in Mexico City, she brings the unseen treatment of bodies into museums and galleries with the rigor of conceptualism and the weight of witness.

Her work centers on border cities, communities excluded from care, and the bodies rendered invisible by corruption and organized crime. She photographs trans sex workers in Ciudad Juárez, collects water poured at Los Angeles homicide sites to cast concrete monuments, and maps the relationship between global economics and localized violence with methodical, fieldwork-driven precision.

She represented Mexico at the 53rd Venice Biennale in 2009, received the Artes Mundi Prize in 2012, and continues to exhibit internationally. The studio practice remains rooted in Mexico, where the work began and where it returns.