Rat Hole Gallery is pleased to present a solo exhibition of Mexican artist Abraham Cruzvillegas on view from July 4 until September 14, 2014. Composed of new works produced on-site, the exhibition marks the first time for the artist’s work to be shown in Japan.
Abraham Cruzvillegas
Selfportrait as a sparkling frontierman, embracing the portrait of Gilberto Bosques, listening to pirekuas and gulping down esquites outside of the cathedral
2014
© Abraham Cruzvillegas Courtesy of the artist
Abraham Cruzvillegas was born in 1968 in Mexico City, where he lives and works. A central figure in a new wave of art in Mexico City during the late 1980s and 90s, Cruzvillegas is best known for his sculptures and installations that examine questions of identity and construction of the self in reference to economic, social, political, and historical conditions. Ranging from small autonomous sculptures to large architectural installations, Cruzvillegas’ dynamic assemblages of varying textures and forms are created from found materials and everyday objects such as scrap wood and metal, recycled plastic, and animal waste. Shaping information, ideas, and experiences into sculptural processes, he generates shifts in meaning and interpretation across particular contexts, places, and times.
Explored in Cruzvillegas’ work are ideas relating to labor economies and production and the industrial readymade versus hand craftsmanship. Improvisation and elements related to the location in which the artist is working are also core aspects of his process of construction and reconstruction which the artist describes by the term Autoconstrucción and which a connection to his native country and his childhood home in Ajusco, a district south of Mexico City, is often an integral component. In addition to his sculptures and installation works, Cruzvillegas’ diverse artistic practice also includes drawing, photography, film, and musical collaborations.
For his exhibition at Rat Hole Gallery, Cruzvillegas will create an installation with hanging sculptures of small found objects based on the idea of an “arrangement” with references to traditional Japanese arts that include netsuke, shunga, and ikebana.
Cruzvillegas studied Pedagogy at the National Autonomous University of Mexico (UNAM) and was a student of Gabriel Orozco. His work has been exhibited in solo exhibitions worldwide, including a major exhibition Abraham Cruzvillegas: The Autoconstrucción Suites at the Walker Art Center in 2013 which traveled to Haus der Kunst in Munich earlier this year and will also be presented at the Jumex Foundation in Mexico City and Amparo Museum in Puebla from October 2014. He has also participated in Documenta (13), Kassel, Germany in 2012; Gwangju Biennial, South Korea also in 2012; 10th Havana Biennial, Cuba in 2009; and the 50th Venice Biennial, Italy in 2003.
Abraham Cruzvillegas
Autodestrucción 4: Demolicion
Installation view
© Abraham Cruzvillegas Courtesy of Thomas Dane Gallery, London
Abraham Cruzvillegas
Autodestrucción 4: Demolicion One More Time
2014
© Abraham Cruzvillegas Courtesy of Thomas Dane Gallery, London