Carlos Amorales
Carlos Amorales (Carlos Amorales, 1970, lives and works in Mexico City)
The artist studied visual arts in the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, both in the city of Amsterdam, Netherlands. Ha has realized artistic residencies at Atelier Calder en Saché (2012) y MAC/VAL en Vitry-sur-Seine (2011) in Francia, and as parte of the proramme Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship in Washington (2010), United States.
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).
Between his numerous individual exhibitions, we can mention: The Factory, Stedelijk Museum (Amsterdam, Netherlands, 2019-2020); Axioms for Action, MUAC, UNAM (México, 2018) and MARCO (Monterrey, 2019); Working Tools, MAMM, (Medellin, 2017); Anti Tropicalia, Museo de Arte y Diseño (Costa Rica, 2015); Black Cloud, Power Plant, (Toronto, 2015); El Esplendor Geométrico, Kurimanzutto (México, 2015), Germinal, Museo Tamayo (Mexico City, 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).
Some of his most outstanding collective exhibitions comprise: Under the Same Sun. Art From Latin America Today, Guggenheim Museum (New York, 2014); New Perspectives in Latin American Art, MoMA (New York, 2007); Mexico City: An Exhibition About The Exchange Rate of Bodies and Values, MoMA PS1 (New York, 2002); and performances as Amorales vs. Amorales, Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris 2001), SF MoMA (San Francisco, 2003), and Tate Modern (London, 2003).
Additionally, he represented Mexico at the 57th Venice Biennale with the project Life in the Folds, and the Netherlands in the same Biennale in 2003. He has also participated in biennials like Manifesta 9 (Belgium, 2012), Biennale de la Habana (Cuba, 2015 y 2009), Performa (New York, 2007), Berlin Biennial (2001 y 2014), Manif d´art 8 The Québec Biennale 2017.
His works are available in international collections such as Museo Tamayo and the Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City: Tate Modern, London; The Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam; among others.
The Rhetoric of the Mask
13.05.2022 l Artist talk l Anca Poterasu Gallery
Artist Carlos Amorales will be presenting for our next Insomnia event, one of his most recent works, The Rhetoric of the Mask (video 4K, 2021, 26’20”). The video work records various actions carried out by Amorales, wearing a series of masks, in front of a computer screen that works as both a camera and a mirror. During the second year of the pandemic, the artist set up a small set in his studio to record himself with the Zoom video-conference platform, and used the virtual backgrounds that it offers to create scenarios that replicate and at the same time hide the private space, while multiplying the image of the artist, creating a game of visual layers where the mask is a formal resource and a motif for reflection.
While the performance events take place, the artist’s voice narrates his dissertations on the function of the mask as a socio-political tool that produces a liminal space between opposites. At the same time, with a visionary tone, he speculates about the occupation of the private space of citizens, through the implementation of algorithms, as a new form of colonialism resulting from technological domination by the rich and powerful, who abandon in their rockets, this planet in extinction.
Carlos Amorales is a multidisciplinary artist who 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. His research processes are complex; they are based in an ample repertoire of empirical methodologies to develop extensive projects that conjugate historical, cultural, and personal references. His practice expands to diverse media such as drawing, painting, sculpture, or collage; as well as performance, installation, animation, sound art, film, writing, among other non- traditional formats.
Film details: Artist:Carlos Amorales (1970), The Rhetoric of the Mask, 2021, Video 4K, color with sound, 26:20 min
