Tierra de miel: honeyland by harley cortez

Harley Cortez is a Guatemalan-American multidisciplinary artist working across painting, film, music, performance, and curatorial practice. Raised between Los Angeles and Queens, with formative ties to Guatemala, his work is shaped by movement between places, languages, and cultural histories. He came to painting through music and film, and those disciplines still guide the way he works. Ash, charcoal, earth pigments, oxidation, text, and automatic gesture produce surfaces that feel excavated rather than composed.

Cortez has exhibited across the United States, Mexico, Australia, and Japan, including Museo Jumex, Museo Tamayo, and the Museo de Arte Moderno in Mexico City, as well as galleries in New York and Los Angeles. His solo exhibition OJALÁ, staged during Frieze Week in Los Angeles* at Dries Van Noten’s The Little House Gallery, brought painting into conversation with sculpture, original music, and moving image, named one of “10 Standout Shows Around Town for Art Week” (C Magazine, 2/20/25).