Gabriel Orozco was born
in Jalapa, Veracruz, Mexico in 1962 and studied at the Escuela Nacional
de Arte Plasticas in Mexico City, and at the Circulo de Bellas Artes
in Madrid, Spain. An avid traveler, Gabriel Orozco uses the urban
landscape and the everyday objects found within it to twist conventional
notions of reality and engage the imagination of the viewer. Orozco’s
interest in complex geometry and mapping find expression in works
like the patterned human skull of “Black Kites,” the curvilinear
logic of “Oval Billiard Table,” and the extended playing
field of the chessboard in “Horses Running Endlessly.”
He considers philosophical problems, such as the concept of infinity,
and evokes them in humble moments, as in the photograph “Pinched
Ball,” which depicts a deflated soccer ball filled with water.
Matching his passion for political engagement with the poetry of
chance encounters, Orozco’s photographs, sculptures, and
installations
propose a distinctive model for the ways in which artists can affect
the world with their work. Orozco was featured at Documenta XI (2002),
where his sensuous terra-cotta works explored the elegance and logic
of traditional ceramics—a pointed commentary on Mexican craft
and its place in a ‘high art’ gallery space. Orozco has
shown his work at distinguished venues including the Whitney Museum
of American Art, the Museum of Modern Art, the Solomon R. Guggenheim
Museum, the Philadelphia Museum of Art, and the Venice Biennale.
A major retrospective of Orozco’s work was assembled at the
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles in 2000, and traveled to
the Museo Internacional Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, and the Museo
de Arte Contemporaneo de Monterey, Mexico. Gabriel Orozco lives
and works in New York, Paris, and Mexico City.
For additional biographic & bibliographic information:
Marian Goodman Gallery, New York | Galerie Chantal Crousel, Paris
Gabriel Orozco on the Art21 blog |
