Carlos Amorales

Carlos Amorales (Mexico City, 1970) is a multidisciplinary artist who studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. The most extensive researches in his work encompass Los Amorales (1996-2001), Liquid Archive (1999-2010), Nuevos Ricos (2004-2009), and a typographic exploration in junction with cinema (2013–present).

Carlos Amorales
Carlos Amorales 2011 in his studio in Mexico City
Born	1970^[1] Mexico City^[1]
Nationality	Mexican^[1]
Known for	Performance art, Animation, Painting, Drawing, Sculpture^[1]

Biography

Carlos Amorales (Mexico City, 1970) lives and works in Mexico. He is a multidisciplinary artist who studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. He has participated in residencies with Atelier Calder, Saché, France (2012); Mac/Val, Val-de-Marne, France (2011); and the Smithsonian Artists Research Fellowship, Washington, D.C. (2010).

Career

Amorales works in a variety of media, including video, animation, painting, drawing, sculpture, and performance. Much of his work explores the limits of language and translation systems to venture into the field of cultural experimentation. He uses graphic production as a tool to develop linguistic structures and alternative working models that allow new forms of interpretation and foster collectivity. In his projects, Amorales examines identity construction processes, proposes a constant re signification of forms present in his work, and provokes a clash between art and pop culture.

Since 1998, Amorales has been building his "Liquid Archive", a digital database of his drawings in the form of vector graphics which he uses produce visual compositions in various media.^[2][3] The graphics, birds, spiders, trees, kneeling figures in blacks, reds, and grays reappear throughout his work and provide his signature style.^[2][3] In 2007, Amorales lent his "Liquid Archive" to the Dutch graphic design duo Mevis & Van Deursen (Armand Mevis and Linda van Deursen) who collaborated with Amorales to produce the book "Carlos Amorales: Liquid Archive, Why Fear The Future".^[4]

His early works also featured masked Mexican wrestlers inspired by the Lucha libre performing in wrestling rings throughout the world. In 2003, the wrestling performance Amorales v. Amorales was staged at the Tate Modern in London, the Pompidou Center in Paris and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.^[5] His animation piece, Useless Wonder (2006) was shown at the Miami Basel art fair. Recently, Amorales has had solo exhibitions at the MALBA in Buenos Aires, the Milton Keynes Gallery in Milton Keynes UK, Yvon Lambert Paris, the MUAC in Mexico City, the Philadelphia Museum of Art.^[1]

In 2008, his exhibition Discarded Spider toured at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati.^[6] For this show, Amorales also staged a performance with the Cincinnati Ballet.^[7]

In 2015, his work Triangle Constellation was installed in the Calderwood courtyard of the Harvard University Art Museums.^[8]

His sculpture Dark Mirror is included in the collections of Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida.^[9]

He has numerous solo exhibitions as Black Cloud, Power Plant, (Toronto, 2015); El Esplendor Geométrico, Kurimanzutto (México, 2015), Germinal, Museo Tamayo (México, 2013); Nuevos Ricos, Kunsthalle Fridericianum (Kassel, 2010); Four Animations, Five Drawings and a Plague, Philadelphia Museum of Art (2008); Discarded Spider, Cincinnati Art Center (2008), to mention a few.

Exhibitions

Amorales has exhibited in many solo and group exhibitions, including:

Select solo exhibitions

• Germinal, Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City (2013)^[10]
• Four Animations, Five Drawings, and a Plague, Philadelphia Museum of Art (2008)^[11]

Select group exhibitions

• 50th Venice Biennale, Dutch Pavilion (2003)^[12]
• PERFORMA07, New York (2007)^[13]
• Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art, Barbican Centre (2008)^[14]
• Manifesta 9 (2012)^[15]
• Sharjah Biennial 11 (2013)^[16]
• Liverpool Biennial (2014)^[17]
• What We Have Overlooked, Framed Framed (2016)^[18]

Public collections

The artist's work is featured in many public collections, including:

• Cisneros Foundation, New York
• La Colección Jumex, Mexico City
• Guggenheim Museum, New York
• Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin ^[19]
• Margulies Collection, Miami
• Minneapolis Institute of Art
• Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City
• Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City
• Museum of Modern Art, New York ^[20]
• Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam
• Pérez Art Museum Miami^[9]
• Philadelphia Museum of Art^[21]
• Walker Art Center, Minneapolis

Art market

Amorales is represented by kurimanzutto in Mexico City.^[22]

References

1. "About the Artist". Philadelphia Museum of Art. Retrieved 2010-07-25.
2. . Irish Museum of Modern Art. Archived from the original on 2011-06-29. Retrieved 2010-07-25.
3. "Philadelphia Museum of Art – Exhibitions". Philadelphia Museum of Art. Retrieved 2010-07-25.
4. "Carlos Amorales: Liquid Archive – Why Fear The Future? – Art". Published Art Bookshop. Retrieved 2010-07-25.
5. "Amorales vs. Amorales" 2014-08-27 at the Wayback Machine, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Retrieved 26 August 2014.
6. "Cincinnati". Contemporary Arts Center. Retrieved 2010-07-25.
7. "Carlos Amorales Biography", Kurimanzutto Gallery, Retrieved 26 August 2014.
8. Nguyen, Sophia. "Harvard Installs "Triangle Constellation"". Harvard Magazine. Retrieved 8 September 2015.
9. "PAMM Free Second Saturdays: Space, Sculpture, and Silhouette • Pérez Art Museum Miami". Pérez Art Museum Miami. Retrieved 2023-10-11.
10. "Germinal", Tamayo Museum, Retrieved 26 August 2014.
11. "Live Cinema/Carlos Amorales: Four Animations, Five Drawings, and a Plague", Philadelphia Museum of Art, Retrieved 26 August 2014.
12. "Netherlands: Carlos Amorales", Venice Biennale, Retrieved 26 August 2014.
13. "Performa07 Artists", Performa, Retrieved 26 August 2014.
14. "Barbican - Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art", Barbican, Retrieved 26 August 2014.
15. "Amorales, Carlos" 2012-08-17 at the Wayback Machine, Manifesta 9, Retrieved 26 August 2014.
16. "Sharjah Art Foundation - Artists & Participants", Sharjah Art Foundation, Retrieved 26 August 2014.
17. "Liverpool Biennial 2014 Artists", Liverpool Biennial, Retrieved 26 August 2014.
18. "Framer Framed", Framer Framed, Retrieved 29 December 2019.
19. "Carlos Amorales: Dark Mirror", Irish Museum of Modern Art, Retrieved 26 August 2014.
20. "The Collection: Carlos Amorales", Museum of Modern Art, Retrieved 26 August 2014.
21. "Collections", Philadelphia Museum of Art, Retrieved 24 September 2014.
22. "Kurimanzutto Artists", Kurimanzutto Gallery, Retrieved 1 October 2014.

External links

• Artist website
• (in Spanish)
• Carlos Amorales collection at the Israel Museum. Retrieved September 2016.
• Article from the BBC's "collective" (culture magazine) 2012-11-07 at the Wayback Machine
• Carlos Amorales in ArtNexus Magazine
• "Carlos Amorales", Artnet
• Carlos Amorales at Highpoint Center for Printmaking, Minneapolis
• at Kadist Art Foundation