Schiavo Mazzonis Gallery

Born in Sancti Spiritus, Cuba, in 1979, currently lives and works in Mexico City.

Known for using the city and its inhabitants as a context of his practice, Ariel Orozco is an artist who produces complex and challenging works of art with virtually nothing. Political and social by nature, his work largely consists of actions and interventions, which he methodically documents.

"I am interested in the public space as an extremely rich and complex zone, a human arena full of meanings and enigmas. I have tried to slightly alter places, orders and behaviors in order to affect meanings and significances, gestures and social mechanics that don't seem apparent or evident at simple sight; that's why I sometimes feel I play more the role of an archeologist who's in constant pursuit for the codes leading to an answer to conflicts of personal, political and social dimension. Many of the actions I do are the result of daily accidents and observations where I try to extract the essence of these events, sometimes the essence is not perceived or experienced immediately, and my goal at the exhibition space is for the withholder to spontaneously crack the codes leading (more towards a recognition than a discovery) at an intimate level. For me the everyday life is an enormous laboratory where we evaluate not only what happens in our lives and imagination but in the complex system of human interaction between individuals and their political and social context. Every object or documentation I have produced derives from an action or its notion, for me the resulting objects are a mere manifestation of my intervention, actions, sculptures, installations are sustained by a gesture which is the substance of my work."

After his graduation from the Instituto Superior de Arte, La Habana, Cuba, he studied at the Escuela Profesional de Artes Plásticas in Trinidad, Cuba.

Among his solo exhibitions:  Detras del Cristal, Federica Schiavo Gallery, Rome, Italy, 2012; Selma Feriani Gallery, London, 2011; Pinta Art Fair, London, 2011; Red Line, Trolebos Galeria, México DF, 2009; Federica Schiavo Gallery, Rome, 2009; Suzanne Tarasieve, Paris, 2007; 50 acts of luck, Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros, México DF, 2006; What happens but cannot be seen, Myto, México DF, 2005; Art Basel Miami Beach, Art Positions, Myto, 2005.

His group shows include: Under destruction, Swiss Institute New York, 2011 and Museum Tinguely, Basel, Switzerland, 2010, curated by Chris Sharp and Gianni Jetzer; Ibrido. Genetica delle forme d’arte Pac, Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan, 2010, curated by Giacinto Di Pietrantonio e Francesco Garutti; Esférico. Una visión del fútbol a través del arte. Museo de Arte de la Secretaría de Hacienda y Crédito Público, Mexico DF, 2010; Hecho en Casa, Museo de Art Moderno, México DF, 2009; Urban Stories, The X Baltic Triennal of International Art, Vilnus, Lithuania, 2009; Animal roto (Broken animal), Museum of Modern Art. Mexico City, 2008; Disarming Matter, Dunkers kulturhus, Helsingborg, Sweden, 2008, curated by Chris Sharp; Terapia de grupo (Arte cubano actual), Galería Fernando Pradilla. Madrid, 2008; The Desobedients, Annet Gelink Gallery, Amsterdam, 2008; Das phantastische geheimnis des exotischen universums Contemporary Art from Mexico, Galerie Birgit Ostermeier. Berlin, 2007; War and Nature, Virgil de Voldere Gallery, New York, 2006; Passion / Provocation – photography and video in the collection Teofilo Cohen, Centro de la Imagen, México DF, 2006; Salon of the Rewarded, Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales, La Habana, 2005; II Festival of Ephemeral Sculpture, Experimental Center of Plastic Arts 23 and C., La Habana, 2004; Cultural Exposition Center ICAI, La Habana, 2002; Contemporary Cuban Art Salon, Centro de Desarrollo de las Artes Visuales, La Habana, 2001.