Gabriel Orozco
Encyclopedia
Gabriel Orozco is a Mexican
artist, who in 1998 was called "one of the most influential artists of this decade, and probably the next one too." He was born in Jalapa, Veracruz
, Mexico and educated in the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas
between 1981 and 1984. He then continued his education in Madrid
at the Circulo de Bellas Artes
between 1986 and 1987. A constant world traveler since 1991, Orozco and wife Maria Gutierrez, along with their son Simón, divide their time between Paris, New York and Mexico City.
in addition to his photographs and sculptures, allows the audience's imagination to explore the creative associations between oft-ignored objects in today's world. His work permits a rarely allowed interaction between the artwork and the audience. For instance, visitors at the Museum of Contemporary Art
in Los Angeles
, California could play a four person game of table tennis
on Orozco's Ping Pond Table (1998). The work's center is a lily
pond with four hemispherical ping pong table pieces arranged in a clover shape around it. At his exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art
, New York
in 1993, Orozco's Home Run piece featured oranges placed in the windows of adjacent apartment buildings. For the 1993 Venice Biennale
, Orozco placed a shoe box on the floor of the Aperto. “What is most important is not so much what people see in the gallery or the museum, but what people see after looking at these things, how they confront reality again”. - Gabriel Orozco from an interview with Benjamin H. D. Buchloh
in the catalogue Gabriel Orozco: Clinton is Innocent. Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
Orozco has participated in the Venice Biennale in 1993, 2003, and 2005, the Whitney Biennial (1995 and 1997), as well as Documenta X (1997) and Documenta XI (2002). He has received numerous awards, including the Seccio Espacios Alternativos prize at the Salon Nacional de Artes Plasticas in Mexico City (1987), a DAAD artist-in-residence grant in Berlin (1995), and the German Blue Orange prize (2006).
He has had solo exhibitions at the following museums:
2011
2010
2009
2006
2005
2004
2001
1999
1998
1997
1996
1994
1993
8 "Gabriel Orozco," 2002, Directed by Juan Carlos Martin with music by Manuel Rocha Iturbide
. Many of his works are related to this popular sport in Mexico
. He currently plays in the Adecmac soccer league
in Mexico City
for the team Club Deportivo Sahara Español.
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
artist, who in 1998 was called "one of the most influential artists of this decade, and probably the next one too." He was born in Jalapa, Veracruz
Veracruz
Veracruz, formally Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave officially Estado Libre y Soberano de Veracruz de Ignacio de la Llave , is one of the 31 states that, along with the Federal District, comprise the 32 federative entities of Mexico. It is divided in 212 municipalities and its capital city is...
, Mexico and educated in the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas
National School of Arts (UNAM)
The Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas is a college of art in Xochimilco, Mexico City. The school is part the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, and is responsible for teaching art - painting, sculpture and graphic design, with undergraduate and graduate studies in San Carlos...
between 1981 and 1984. He then continued his education in Madrid
Madrid
Madrid is the capital and largest city of Spain. The population of the city is roughly 3.3 million and the entire population of the Madrid metropolitan area is calculated to be 6.271 million. It is the third largest city in the European Union, after London and Berlin, and its metropolitan...
at the Circulo de Bellas Artes
Círculo de Bellas Artes
The Círculo de Bellas Artes is a building located in Madrid, Spain. It was declared Bien de Interés Cultural in 1981....
between 1986 and 1987. A constant world traveler since 1991, Orozco and wife Maria Gutierrez, along with their son Simón, divide their time between Paris, New York and Mexico City.
Overview
Orozco's exploration of the use of video, drawings, and installationsInstallation art
Installation art describes an artistic genre of three-dimensional works that are often site-specific and designed to transform the perception of a space. Generally, the term is applied to interior spaces, whereas exterior interventions are often called Land art; however, the boundaries between...
in addition to his photographs and sculptures, allows the audience's imagination to explore the creative associations between oft-ignored objects in today's world. His work permits a rarely allowed interaction between the artwork and the audience. For instance, visitors at the Museum of Contemporary Art
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles
The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles is a contemporary art museum with three locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near Walt Disney Concert Hall...
in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California could play a four person game of table tennis
Table tennis
Table tennis, also known as ping-pong, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight, hollow ball back and forth using table tennis rackets. The game takes place on a hard table divided by a net...
on Orozco's Ping Pond Table (1998). The work's center is a lily
Nymphaeaceae
Nymphaeaceae is a family of flowering plants. Members of this family are commonly called water lilies and live in freshwater areas in temperate and tropical climates around the world. The family contains eight genera. There are about 70 species of water lilies around the world. The genus...
pond with four hemispherical ping pong table pieces arranged in a clover shape around it. At his exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art
Museum of Modern Art
The Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
, New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
in 1993, Orozco's Home Run piece featured oranges placed in the windows of adjacent apartment buildings. For the 1993 Venice Biennale
Venice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
, Orozco placed a shoe box on the floor of the Aperto. “What is most important is not so much what people see in the gallery or the museum, but what people see after looking at these things, how they confront reality again”. - Gabriel Orozco from an interview with Benjamin H. D. Buchloh
Benjamin H. D. Buchloh
Benjamin H. D. Buchloh is the Andrew W. Mellon Professor of Modern Art at Harvard University. His 2000 book, Neo-Avantgarde and Culture Industry, is a collection of eighteen essays on major figures of postwar art written since the late 1970s...
in the catalogue Gabriel Orozco: Clinton is Innocent. Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris.
Orozco has participated in the Venice Biennale in 1993, 2003, and 2005, the Whitney Biennial (1995 and 1997), as well as Documenta X (1997) and Documenta XI (2002). He has received numerous awards, including the Seccio Espacios Alternativos prize at the Salon Nacional de Artes Plasticas in Mexico City (1987), a DAAD artist-in-residence grant in Berlin (1995), and the German Blue Orange prize (2006).
Works
- La D.S. is one of Orozco's largest works; a silver Citroën DSCitroën DSThe Citroën DS is an executive car produced by the French manufacturer Citroën between 1955 and 1975. Styled by Italian sculptor and industrial designer Flaminio Bertoni and the French aeronautical engineer André Lefèbvre, the DS was known for its aerodynamic futuristic body design and innovative...
was sliced into three pieces lengthwise. The middle section was removed and the two remaining pieces were fastened together, forming an arrow-like car with a width 63.5 cm (25 inches) less than the original. Visitors may sit in the new vehicle and the doors and trunk can be opened though it was not made to drive.
- The 1994 sound piece, Ligne d'abandon based on the screeching sound of a car wheel, made in collaboration with Manuel Rocha IturbideManuel Rocha IturbideManuel Rocha Iturbide is a Mexican composer and sound artist.-Biography:Manuel Rocha Iturbide was born in 1963 in Mexico City, he started musical studies when he was 13 years old. In 1983, after studying musical pedagogy in Lyon France for one year, he decided to start a career as composer at the...
at Galerie Chantal Crousel in Paris. - The 1996 creation, Oval with Pendulum is a small round pocket-less billiardsBilliardsCue sports , also known as billiard sports, are a wide variety of games of skill generally played with a cue stick which is used to strike billiard balls, moving them around a cloth-covered billiards table bounded by rubber .Historically, the umbrella term was billiards...
table with a suspended ball. - Yielding Stone is a large ball of plasticinePlasticinePlasticine, a brand of modelling clay, is a putty-like modelling material made from calcium salts, petroleum jelly and aliphatic acids. The name is a registered trademark of Flair Leisure Products plc...
(modeling clay) that was rolled down city streets in 1992, making impressions in the ball and collecting various debris. The ball ultimately weighed as much as Orozco himself. - Extension of Reflection (1992) is a photograph of ripples from a bike passing through a puddle. It exemplifies the typical pictures Orozco takes: those that focus on chance and fleeting events.
- Breath on Piano (1993) is another such picture, capturing the fog from Orozco's breathing.
- Mis Manos son mi Corazón (1991) is a set of two photographs of the torso of a bare-chested Orozco. The first depicts him squeezing his hands around a ball of clayClayClay is a general term including many combinations of one or more clay minerals with traces of metal oxides and organic matter. Geologic clay deposits are mostly composed of phyllosilicate minerals containing variable amounts of water trapped in the mineral structure.- Formation :Clay minerals...
; the second shows him unfolding his hands and the resulting heart-shaped clay form is held in front of his chest. - Horses Running Endlessly is an enlarged chess field of 256 square tiles. KnightsKnight (chess)The knight is a piece in the game of chess, representing a knight . It is normally represented by a horse's head and neck. Each player starts with two knights, which begin on the row closest to the player, one square from the corner...
of four distinct colors are arranged around the board.
Exhibitions
Gabriel Orozco is represented by Marian Goodman Gallery in New York, Galerie Chantal Crousel in Paris, and Galeria Kurimanzutto in Mexico City.He has had solo exhibitions at the following museums:
2011
- Tate ModernTate ModernTate Modern is a modern art gallery located in London, England. It is Britain's national gallery of international modern art and forms part of the Tate group . It is the most-visited modern art gallery in the world, with around 4.7 million visitors per year...
, London, UK
2010
- Kunstmuseum BaselKunstmuseum BaselThe Kunstmuseum Basel houses the largest and most significant public art collection in Switzerland, and is listed as a heritage site of national significance. Its lineage extends back to the Amerbach Cabinet purchased by the city of Basel in 1661, which made it the first municipally owned museum...
, Basel, Switzerland - Centre Pompidou, Paris, France
2009
- MoMAMomaMoma may refer to:* Moma , an owlet moth genus* Moma Airport, a Russian public airport* Moma District, Nampula, Mozambique* Moma River, a right tributary of the Indigirka River* Google Moma, the Google corporate intranet...
, New York
2006
- Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Mexico
- Museum LudwigMuseum LudwigMuseum Ludwig, located in Cologne, Germany, houses a collection of modern art. It includes works from PopArt, Abstract and Surrealism, and has one of the largest Picasso collections in Europe. It also features many works by Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein....
, Cologne, Germany
2005
- Palacio de CristalPalacio de CristalPalacio de Cristal, "Crystal Palace" is a glass palace located in Madrid's Buen Retiro Park. It was built in 1887 to exhibit flora and fauna from the Philippines. It is high and is currently used for art exhibits.. It was built within 4 months which is relatively quick for its era.-References:...
, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina SofiaMuseo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina SofíaThe Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía is the official name of Spain's national museum of 20th century art . The museum was officially inaugurated on September 10, 1992 and is named for Queen Sofia of Spain...
, Madrid, Spain
2004
- Hirshhorn Museum, Washington D.C., USA
- Serpentine GallerySerpentine GalleryThe Serpentine Gallery is an art gallery in Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, central London. It focuses on modern and contemporary art. The exhibitions, architecture, education and public programmes attract approximately 750,000 visitors a year...
, London, UK
2001
- The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los AngelesMuseum of Contemporary Art, Los AngelesThe Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles is a contemporary art museum with three locations in greater Los Angeles, California. The main branch is located on Grand Avenue in Downtown Los Angeles, near Walt Disney Concert Hall...
, California, USA - Museo Internacional Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico
- Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de MonterreyMuseo de Arte Contemporáneo de MonterreyMuseo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey is one of the leading museums of contemporary art in Mexico. MARCO organizes major exhibitions with regional and international contemporary artists. It is located in the heart of Monterrey next to the Macroplaza and Barrio Antiguo...
, Monterrey, Mexico
1999
- PortikusPortikusPortikus is an exhibition hall for contemporary art in Frankfurt am Main, originally founded in 1987 through the initiation of Kasper König, one of the most influential living curators of contemporary art. It's name derives from the surviving portico of the Stadtbibliothek from 1825 that was...
, Frankfurt am Main, Germany - Centre pour l’Image ContemporaineCentre pour l’Image ContemporaineThe Centre pour l’Image Contemporaine was a contemporary art exhibition centre in Geneva, Switzerland....
, Geneva, Switzerland - Philadelphia Museum of ArtPhiladelphia Museum of ArtThe Philadelphia Museum of Art is among the largest art museums in the United States. It is located at the west end of the Benjamin Franklin Parkway in Philadelphia's Fairmount Park. The Museum was established in 1876 in conjunction with the Centennial Exposition of the same year...
, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
1998
- Saint Louis Art MuseumSaint Louis Art MuseumThe Saint Louis Art Museum is one of the principal U.S. art museums, visited by up to a half million people every year. Admission is free through a subsidy from the cultural tax district for St. Louis City and County.Located in Forest Park in St...
, St Louis, Missouri, USA - Centro Fotográfico Álvarez BravoCentro Fotográfico Álvarez BravoThe Centro Fotográfico Álvarez Bravo is a photographic exhibition centre in the city of Oaxaco, Mexico.The centre is named after the Mexican photographer Manuel Álvarez Bravo . It is located in the Graphic Arts Institute of Oaxaca....
, Oaxaca, Mexico - Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris/ARC, Paris, France
1997
- Stedelijk MuseumStedelijk MuseumFounded in 1874, the Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam is a museum for classic modern and contemporary art in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. It has been housed on the Paulus Potterstraat, next to Museum Square Museumplein and to the Rijksmuseum, Van Gogh Museum and the Concertgebouw, in Amsterdam Zuid...
, Amsterdam, The Netherlands
1996
- Kunsthalle ZürichKunsthalle ZürichThe Kunsthalle Zürich is a contemporary art exhibition centre in Zurich, Switzerland. It is located on Limmatstrasse, near the city centre. The current director is Beatrix Ruf.A number of temporary exhibitions are organized each year...
, Zurich, Switzerland - Institute of Contemporary ArtInstitute of Contemporary ArtThe Institute of Contemporary Art is an art museum and exhibition space located in Boston, in the U.S. state of Massachusetts. The museum was founded in 1936 with a mission to exhibit contemporary art.-Mission:...
, London, England
1994
- Museum of Contemporary Art, ChicagoMuseum of Contemporary Art, ChicagoThe Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago is a contemporary art museum near Water Tower Place in downtown Chicago in Cook County, Illinois, United States. The museum, which was established in 1967, is one of the world's largest contemporary art venues...
, Illinois, USA
1993
- Museum of Modern ArtMuseum of Modern ArtThe Museum of Modern Art is an art museum in Midtown Manhattan in New York City, on 53rd Street, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues. It has been important in developing and collecting modernist art, and is often identified as the most influential museum of modern art in the world...
, New York City, New York, USA
Filmography
- "Art:21 Film on Gabriel Orozco," 2003
8 "Gabriel Orozco," 2002, Directed by Juan Carlos Martin with music by Manuel Rocha Iturbide
Manuel Rocha Iturbide
Manuel Rocha Iturbide is a Mexican composer and sound artist.-Biography:Manuel Rocha Iturbide was born in 1963 in Mexico City, he started musical studies when he was 13 years old. In 1983, after studying musical pedagogy in Lyon France for one year, he decided to start a career as composer at the...
Hobbies
Gabriel Orozco has been a big fan of football (soccer) since he was a youth in Mexico CityMexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
. Many of his works are related to this popular sport in Mexico
Mexico
The United Mexican States , commonly known as Mexico , is a federal constitutional republic in North America. It is bordered on the north by the United States; on the south and west by the Pacific Ocean; on the southeast by Guatemala, Belize, and the Caribbean Sea; and on the east by the Gulf of...
. He currently plays in the Adecmac soccer league
Adecmac soccer league
The Adecmac soccer league, also known as "Asociación Deportiva y Cultural de Ex alumnos del Colegio Madrid A.C." is an amateur soccer league, formed by former students of the Mexican-Spanish republican high school "Colegio Madrid" in Mexico City.-History:...
in Mexico City
Mexico City
Mexico City is the Federal District , capital of Mexico and seat of the federal powers of the Mexican Union. It is a federal entity within Mexico which is not part of any one of the 31 Mexican states but belongs to the federation as a whole...
for the team Club Deportivo Sahara Español.
External links
- Gabriel Orozco in Literal - features and article and images from Orozcos's work
- Guggenheim: Pelota en agua
- MoMA: Horses Running Endlessly
- Guardian Article: Orozco at White Cube, London
- Gabriel Orozco at Marian Goodman, New York
- Ping Pond Table
- Sand on Table
- Kurimanzutto Gallery: Orozco
- Biography, interviews, essays, artwork images and video clips from PBSPublic Broadcasting ServiceThe Public Broadcasting Service is an American non-profit public broadcasting television network with 354 member TV stations in the United States which hold collective ownership. Its headquarters is in Arlington, Virginia....
series Art:21 -- Art in the Twenty-First Century - Season 2 (2003). - Art Magazine site
- NY Arts Magazine profile on Orozco's playful sculptures
- Black Kites
- La D.S.
- Clam Shell
- Ligne d'abandon
- Lost Line
