Gabriel Orozco

The Museum of Modern Art - MoMA

Sunday 13 December 2009 to Monday 01 March 2010
Gabriel Orozco (Mexican, b. 1962) emerged at the beginning of the 1990s as one of the most intriguing and original artists of his generation and one of the last to come of age in the twentieth century, with a body of work that is unique in its formal power and intellectual rigor.

Orozco resists confinement to one medium, and roams freely and fluently among drawing, photography, sculpture, installation, and painting. He has chosen a life and an artistic approach that could be called nomadic, ignoring any possible narrowness implied by national or regional identification.

His native Mexico, New York, Paris, and working trips throughout the world all provide essential inspiration. He deliberately blurs the boundaries between the art object and the everyday environment, instead situating his contribution in a place that merges “art” and “reality,” whether in exquisite drawings made on airplane boarding passes or sculptures made from recovered trash.

Many of Orozco’s works—often specifically created for the occasion of an exhibition—have become indisputable classics of the art of the 1990s, such as the Citroën automobile surgically reduced to two-thirds its normal width (La DS, 1993) and the human skull covered with a graphite grid (Black Kites, 1997). This exhibition will provide the opportunity for many of these to be seen for the first
time in New York and combine them with rich selections of work from Orozco’s vast body of smaller objects, paintings, and works on paper.

The exhibition is organized by Ann Temkin, Marie-Josée and Henry Kravis Chief Curator of Painting and Sculpture, The Museum of Modern Art. The exhibition in New York will be followed by presentations at the Kunstmuseum Basel from April 10 to August 10, 2010 and the Musée national d’art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris from September 10, 2010 to January 11, 2011.

A fully illustrated catalogue, presenting much new documentation on the artist, will accompany the exhibition.

The International Council of The Museum of Modern Art Gallery, sixth floor

Location

The Museum of Modern Art - MoMA
11 West 53 Street
Midtown Manhattan Precinct
New York
United States
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La DS. 1993
© All rights reserved Gabriel Orozco 2009 United States
Modified Citroën DS, 55 3/16 x 189 15/16 x 45 5/16" (140.1 x 482.5 x 115.1 cm). Fonds national d’art contemporain, Puteaux, France. Photography courtesy of Chantal Crousel Gallery, Paris. Photo credit: Florian Kleinefenn, Paris
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La DS. 1993
© All rights reserved Gabriel Orozco 2009 United States
Modified Citroën DS, 55 3/16 x 189 15/16 x 45 5/16" (140.1 x 482.5 x 115.1 cm). Fonds national d’art contemporain, Puteaux, France. Photography courtesy of Chantal Crousel Gallery, Paris Photo credit: Florian Kleinefenn, Paris ©2009
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Yielding Stone. 1992
© All rights reserved Gabriel Orozco 2009 United States
Plasticine, approx. 14 x 17 x 17" (35.6 x 43.2 x 43.2 cm). One of three versions. Collection of the artist. Photography courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery, New York. Photo credit: Gabriel Orozco
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Black Kites. 1997
© All rights reserved Gabriel Orozco 2009 United States
Graphite on skull. 8 1/2 x 5 x 6 1/4" (21.6 x 12.7 x 15.9 cm) Philadelphia Museum of Art. Gift (by exchange) of Mr. and Mrs. James P. Magill, 1997.Photography courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery, New York
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My Hands Are My Heart. 1991
© All rights reserved Gabriel Orozco 2009 United States
Silver dye bleach print, 2 parts, Each 9 1/8 x 12 ½” (23.2 x 31.8 cm). Courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery, New York
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Kytes Tree. 2005
© All rights reserved Gabriel Orozco 2009 United States
Synthetic polymer paint on canvas, 6’ 6 ¾” x 6’ 6 ¾” (200 x 200 cm). The Museum of Modern Art, New York. Purchase and gift of Anna Marie and Robert F. Shapiro and Donald B. Marron ©2009 Gabriel Orozco
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Island Within an Island. 1993
© All rights reserved Gabriel Orozco 2009 United States
Silver dye bleach print, 16 x 20” (40.6 x 50.8 cm) Courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery, New York