Guillermo Guardia received his BFA in industrial design from Pontifical Catholic University of Perú in Lima. He earned his MFA in ceramics and his MS in industrial technology from the University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, before working as an artist-in-residence at the North Dakota Museum of Art. In 2015 he resigned to become a full-time studio artist and currently lives and works in St. Paul, Minnesota. He creates figurative sculptures, integrating pattern and form, that are influenced by art history, his upbringing in Peru, Catholicism, his transition to living in the United States, and political events. Guardia has exhibited nationally and internationally and his work is featured in the permanent collection of North Dakota Museum of Art, and Fundación Puntos de Encuentro in Bogota, Colombia. Guardia was awarded a 2019 McKnight Artist Fellowship and is a fiscal year 2020 recipient of an Artist Initiative grant from the Minnesota State Arts Board.