Vargas-Suarez Universal

Vargas-Suarez Universal (b. 1972) is an artist currently living and working between New York City, Houston, Texas and Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic in Central Asia (Kyrgyzstan). He was born in Mexico City and raised in the Houston, Texas suburb of Clear Lake City, adjacent to the Johnson Space Center (NASA). From 1991 to 1996 he studied astronomy and art history at the University of Texas at Austin and moved to New York City in 1997. He is primarily known for public art, paintings, textile works, drawings, and sound recordings. He sources American, Russian, European, Canadian and Japanese spaceflight programs, astronomy, and aerospace architecture to create commissioned, studio-based and public artworks for museums, galleries, private and public spaces.

Vargas-Suarez has conducted post-studio research at NASA Ames Research Center, Mountain View, CA; Oak Ridge National Labs, Oak Ridge, TN; Arecibo Observatory, Puerto Rico, Kennedy Space Center, Cape Canaveral, FL; Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX; Gagarin Cosmonaut Training Center, Korolyov (Moscow), Russia; and the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.

His writings have been published by Right Brain Words, New York; Edizioni Charta, Milano and The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA.

Selected Collections:
Ainsworth Collection, Sydney, Australia
American University of Central Asia, Bishkek, Kyrgyz Republic
Artist Pension Trust, New York
Baltimore Museum of Art, Maryland
BaNorte Banco Comercial, Caracas, Venezuela
Boelsche Collection, Austin
Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York
Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno (CAAM), Las Palmas de Gran Canarias, Spain
Comunidad Autonoma de la Region de Murcia (CARM), Spain
DA2 (Domus Artium 2002), Fundacion Salamanca Ciudad de Cultura, Salamanca, Spain
Dieu Donne Papermill, Inc. Archives, New York
El Museo del Barrio, New York (commission)
Fundación Canaria para el Desarrollo de la Pintura, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Spain
LibertyHealth Foundation, Jersey City (commission)
Jersey City Museum, Jersey City
JPMorgan Chase Art Collection
Mexic-Arte Museum, Austin
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC), León, Spain
New York City Department of Education
The Museum of Modern Art Library, New York
Palazzo delle Papesse Centro Arte Contemporanea, Siena, Italy
Queens Museum of Art, New York
Rhode Island School of Design Museum of Art, Providence
Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art, University of Oregon, Eugene
UBS Art Collection
Villardell Collection, Palma de Mallorca, Spain
Webb School of Knoxville, Visiting Artist Study Collection, Knoxville, Tennessee
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
Winzavod Contemporary Art Centre, Moscow, Russian Federatio