Cheo González was born in Chile and is currently based in London. He is completing his MA in Fine Arts at the University of the Arts London, Chelsea College of Arts, where he received the UAL International Postgraduate Scholarship and Accommodation Award.
In 2024, he received the UAL Bounce Fund Award, was selected for the Weatherbys Private Bank Exhibition, the ADEMA Residency in Majorca, the International Festival by the Academy of Visual Arts in Ljubljana, the Millbank Residency in London, and the Arts Chaplaincy Project. He was also invited by UAL to lead critiques for the MA students in the Singapore art group and was shortlisted for the Mead Fellowship 2024 for his book The Queer Art Atlas.
Throughout 2024, González held his first solo exhibition Soulless at Peckham Levels in London and curated and organised several exhibitions in the city. These included The International Queer Art Exhibition 2024, which featured participation from 25 countries and was a collaboration between UAL and The Queer Museum. He also curated and organised Sexual Dissidence (in Art Today) at Millbank, a collaborative project involving Sotheby’s, UAL, students from the RCA, the National University of Brasília, and artists from 11 countries. Additionally, he organised the Desire & Consumption exhibition at Peckham Levels in collaboration with postgraduate students from UAL and Sotheby’s.
In addition to his artistic practice, González is deeply engaged in queer political activism. Since 2019, he has been the director of The Queer Museum, a non-profit organisation that connects and promotes queer artists worldwide through exhibitions and publications.
His work is featured in private collections and museums, including the UAL Art Collection, the Museum of Sexual Diversity in Brazil, the Lusophone Museum of Diversity in Portugal, and the Diversa Institute. His work also appears in books such as Jesus Now from Abrams Books, where he is featured alongside artists like Cindy Sherman, David LaChapelle, and Pierre et Gilles, and even graces the cover.
I come from a peculiar family in South America who, during my childhood, periodically took me to see the corpses of naked white men who had been tortured and hung on the walls of my city. After years of therapy, my therapist and I have not yet reached a consensus on the traumas this caused, but we are certain that it has profoundly influenced my art.
My work draws on these Christian images of crucifixions and martyrdom, examining their veiled homoerotic content and how they were politically instrumentalized to promote ideas of racial and sexual supremacy through the existence of a white, male, and irrefutable god. I aim to dismantle these supremacist notions by desacralizing these images in public spaces. To do so, I reclaim billboards from the street, using them to create new, openly homoerotic and racially inclusive devotional images that reclaim queer bodies and desires within the context of sexual dissidence.
Education
2024 M.A. University of Arts London, UK.
1999 B.A. DuocUC, Santiago, Chile.
Exhibitions
2024 Afterwalls, Millbank Studio 18, London.
2024 MA Show. UAL Chelsea College of Arts, London.
2024 Solo exhibition “Soulless”, Peckham Levels, London.
2024 Weatherbys Private Bank Exhibition, London.
2024 Semana del Arte de Mallorca ADEMA, Fundación Barceló, Palma, Spain.
2024 Desire and Consumption, Packham Levels, London.
2024 Sexual Dissidence (in Art Today), Studio 18 Millbank, London.
2024 Grounded, Cookhouse Gallery, London.
2024 Arts Chaplaincy Project, St Saviour’s, London.
2024 Everything Must Go, Chelsea College of Arts, London.
2024 International Exhibition, Academy of Visual Arts, Ljubljana, Slovenia.
2024 The Third Space, 2024. University of the Arts London.
2024 Home. Simmons Farringdon, London.
2023 One, Cookhouse, London UK.
2023 The Little Show, Chelsea UAL, London UK.
2023 Everything is connected, Cookhouse, London UK.
2023 Departure Lounge, ALG 17 Gallery, London, UK.
2022 22=11, Museu Lusófono da Diversidade Sexual (on-line, Google Arts & Culture)
2020 Mil Metros, Museum of Sexual Diversity and Google Arts & Culture. (on-line)
2019 Diversa, 2018, Museu da Diversidade Sexual. São Paulo, Brazil.
2018 Bienal da Arte Sesc-DF, Sesc, Brazil.
2016 Donas da Historia, Caixa Economica Federal, Brazil.
2016 Horrible self-portraits, Brasilia.
2015 Caixas de Bonecas, Caixa econômica Federal, Brasilia.
2015 Dark Brazil, Brasília, Brazil.
2015 Escolhas, Caixa econômica Federal, Brasilia, Brazil.
2013 Persa del Arte, Factoría Santa Rosa. Santiago, Chile.
Selected Collections
UAL Art Collection, London, UK.
Museu da Diversidade Sexual, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Diversa Foundation, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Museu Lusófono da Diversidade Sexual, Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Curatorial projects
2024 Sexual Dissidence (in Art Today), Studio 18 Millbank, London.
2024 Desire and Consumption, Packham Levels, London.
2024 The Queer Museum, International Annual Exhibition, Cookhouse Gallery, London.
2023 The Queer Museum, International Annual Exhibition, Memorial de América Latina, São Paulo.
2023 Afetos Dissidentes, Exhibition, The Queer Museum, Museu da Diversidade, São Paulo.
Honors/Awards
2023 UAL International Postgraduate Scholarship and Accommodation Award, UK
2024 UAL Bounce Fund Award, UK.
2024 ADEMA Univesity Residency, Majorca, Spain.
2024 Millbank Tower Residency, London UK.