Antún Kojtom

Tenejapa, Chiapas, México, 1969. 

Antún Kojtom (Antonio Ramírez Intzin), visual artist who expresses himself through painting, muralism, engraving, drawing and illustration.

Focused on expressing “Tseltal Mayan spirituality and ancestral knowledge” through the deconstruction of the Tseltal term “ch’ulel”. His works express “a critical sense of color composition, highlighting the essence of an internal light that every living being and object refracts.” His intention is to recover and reconstruct the historical memory of his native Tenejapa, due to the effects of cultural modernization.

Antún: “this is a form of communication, a dialogue of reflection on the Tseltal Mayan cultural environment.”

Antún Kojtom is, among the pioneers in current Mayan art, the promoter of multiple initiatives in social art as part of the cultural “Mayan renaissance” of Chiapas. Recognized for his neo-cubist style and contribution to the artistic movement among indigenous peoples of the Americas.

Since 2015, he has been working on the theme of “reflections of change in memory”, a series of paintings about ecology and decoloniality, with which he participates in the collective initiative between Mayan and Zoque artists at the Galería MUY.

He has participated in more than 39 individual exhibitions and around 65 group exhibitions in different places such as: United States of America, Italy, France, Spain, Belgium, Austria, Brazil, Argentina, Guatemala, Cuba, Colombia, and in different states of Mexico.

He has made several murals and interventions in public and private spaces, among which the “Ch’ulel” mural in the Hermanos Domínguez City Theater in San Cristóbal de Las Casas, Chiapas and the “La Roca del Moros de Cogul” mural in Barcelona stand out. These works resume years of reflection on “ch’ulel”, the panpsychic cosmic energy that links the practical philosophy of today with the science of the classical Mayan civilization (300-900 AD).

Awards

In 2011 he was the winner of the first special jury mention at the Paco Urondo Small Format Engraving Biennial, at the University of Buenos Aires (UBA) and at the Nómada Museum of Engraving (MUNOGRA).

Exhibitions 

• Mut Ch’ulelal (Nagual Birds), solo exhibition, Galería MUY, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, 2023.
• Ts’ ibabil k’ op yaye ch’ulelal (The carved language of the ch’ulel), solo exhibition, Galería MUY, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, 2021.
• Mayan and zoque interpretations of the (In) visible pandemic, virtual exhibition, Galería MUY, 2020.
• Spoxil Ch’ulelal (Soul Medicine), group exhibition, Centro médico siglo XXI, Ciudad de México, 2019.
• Futures: tradition/globalization, exhibition with Kayúm Ma’ax, Galería MUY, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, 2019. 
• Jna’tik Jnatik (We miss our home), group exhibition, Corpus Christi, Ciudad de México, 2017.
• Reflections of change in memory, exhibition with Kayúm Ma’ax, Galería MUY, San Cristóbal de las Casas, Chiapas, 2015.