Gabriel Orozco

Gabriel Orozco was born in 1962 in Jalapa. He currently lives and works mainly in Tokyo and Mexico City. He studied at the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plasticas at the Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico and the Circulo de Bellas Artes in Madrid.

Orozco gained his reputation in the early 1990s with his exploration of drawing, photography, sculpture, installation, and expanding later to include painting. His work blurs the boundaries of art with everyday realities and often balances complex geometry with organic materials and elements of chance.

Orozco has had solo exhibitions at institutions such as Aspen Art Museum, Colorado (2016); Museum of Contemporary Art Tokyo, Tokyo (2015); Moderna Museet, Stockholm (2014); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2012); Museo del Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico (2006); The Serpentine Gallery, London (2004); The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2000) and a major retrospective which traveled from the Museum of Modern Art, New York to the Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland, the Centre Pompidou, Paris and the Tate Modern, London (2009-2011).

Gabriel Orozco has been the recipient of numerous awards including the Honoris Causa Award, University of the Arts, Havana (2015); the BlueOrange Prize (2006) and the DAAD Artist in Residence, Berlin (1995). He has participated in the Venice Biennale several times (2017, 2005, 2003, 1993) and documenta (2002, 1997).

In 2019 it was announced by the President of Mexico that Orozco would, in conjunction with the Secretariat of Culture, be overseeing the construction of a major new cultural center within Chapultepec Park in Mexico City.

Photo: Enrique Badulescu.