Gabriel Orozco facts for kids

Gabriel Orozco (born April 27, 1962) is a famous Mexican artist. He became well-known in the early 1990s for his unique art. He explores different ways of making art, like drawing, photography, sculpture, and installations. An art expert named Francesco Bonami once called Orozco "one of the most influential artists" of his time.

About Gabriel Orozco

His Early Life and School

Gabriel Orozco was born in 1962 in Veracruz, Mexico. His mother was Cristina Félix Romandía. His father, Mario Orozco Rivera, was a mural painter and art teacher. When Gabriel was six, his family moved to Mexico City. This was so his father could work on big wall paintings with another artist, David Alfaro Siquieros.

Gabriel often went with his father to museums and watched him work. He heard many talks about art and politics. This helped him learn about the art world from a young age.

Orozco went to the Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas from 1981 to 1984. But he felt the art program was too old-fashioned. In 1986, he moved to Madrid, Spain. There, he studied at the Circulo de Bellas Artes. His teachers showed him many new artists who used unusual ways to create art.

His Art Career

In 1987, Orozco came back to Mexico City from Madrid. He started hosting weekly meetings with other artists. This group included Damián Ortega, Gabriel Kuri, Abraham Cruzvillegas, and Dr. Lakra. They met every week for five years. Orozco's home became a place where many art projects began.

Orozco traveled a lot, and this influenced his art. He found ideas by exploring streets and everyday places. His early art aimed to be different from the popular art of the 1980s. That art was often made in huge studios with many helpers.

In contrast, Orozco usually worked alone or with just one or two assistants. His art often uses repeated ideas and methods. He includes real-life objects and common things in his work. He wants people to use their imagination to see new connections between everyday objects.

In 1995, he worked in Berlin with a special art grant. He is represented in New York by the art gallery Marian Goodman.

Gabriel Orozco's Family Life

Gabriel Orozco married Maria Gutierrez on August 2, 1994, in New York. They have one son named Simόn, who was born in November 2004. Orozco lives and works in different cities. These include New York, Mexico City, Tokyo, and places in France.

Famous Artworks by Orozco

Art from 1981–1991

Recaptured Nature, 1991

This is one of Orozco's first sculptures. He made it from rubber inner tubes of truck tires. He cut the rubber and joined the pieces to make an inflatable ball. Orozco said this work was like a math problem about shapes and connections. Recaptured Nature shows how anything can become something else.

Sleeping Dog, 1990

Orozco started taking photos around 1989. Sleeping Dog is an early photo. It shows a sleeping dog from above on a large rock. The way the photo is taken makes the dog look like both a picture and a real object. This photo shows Orozco's interest in how photos can inspire sculptures.

Crazy Tourist, 1991

Orozco took this photo in Bahia, Brazil. He found an empty market with some old oranges. He placed one orange on each table. Then he took a picture of his arrangement. The local people watching him called him a "turista maluco," meaning "crazy tourist." This photo shows how Orozco uses photography to capture simple, quick events.

My Hands are my Heart, 1991

This is a small, heart-shaped sculpture made in 1991. Orozco pressed his fingers into a lump of clay to make a heart shape. The hard clay shows the soft shape of a human organ. The finger marks show the artist's touch. This work also relates to photos of Orozco holding the clay heart near his own heart.

Art from 1992–1999

Yielding Stone, 1992

For this artwork, Orozco rolled a solid ball of gray plasticine through the streets of Monterrey. It picked up dirt, small stones, and trash. He then showed the ball in a gallery. It kept collecting dust there. This work shows the process of its creation and how it changes by interacting with its surroundings.

Empty Shoe Box, 1993

At the 1993 Venice Biennale art show, Orozco simply placed an empty shoebox on the floor. He wanted viewers to pay more attention to the space around them. By putting a very common object in an empty room, he made people more aware of what was there and what was not.

Home Run, 1993

This artwork was part of a show at MoMA in New York. Orozco asked people in buildings near the museum to put oranges in their windows. This way, people would see the art even after leaving the museum. Home Run made art go beyond the usual museum walls. It mixed art with everyday life.

La DS, 1993

La DS was first shown in Paris in 1993. Orozco worked on a classic 1950s French car, a Citroen DS. He cut out a middle section of the car. Then he put the two remaining halves back together. The car still looked like a car, but it was much thinner. This work makes you think about how objects take up space and how we see them.

Yogurt Caps, 1994

For his first show at Marian Goodman gallery, Orozco placed four yogurt caps on opposite walls of an empty room. He sometimes wants his art to seem simple or even "disappointing." Yogurt Caps made viewers think about space, emptiness, and their own awareness in the room.

Working Tables, 1996

Orozco's first Working Table was shown in Zurich in 1996. These tables are collections of drawings, ideas, found objects, and unfinished artworks. They give a close look at how the artist thinks and creates. Seeing these small objects together helps viewers understand the repeating ideas in Orozco's art.

Black Kites, 1997

Orozco made Black Kites after he had a lung problem in 1996. He bought a human skull and spent months covering it with a checkerboard pattern using graphite. The pattern follows the skull's shape. This artwork combines a strict pattern with a natural shape. It also reminds us of human life and death, which are common themes in Mexican culture.

Art from 2000–Today

Lintels, 2001

For this installation, Orozco collected dryer lint for a year. He hung the sheets of lint across a gallery room like clothes on a line. These fragile sheets contain hair, dust, and clothing particles. They move slightly when people walk by. Lintels shows the leftover bits of human presence. It's like his earlier work Yielding Stone, as both change over time by collecting new dust.

Samurai Tree Paintings, 2004

In 2004, Orozco started making geometric abstract paintings. They have circular shapes and designs, like drawings he had made for years on paper or tickets. He showed the first paintings in London in 2004. He started with a point, drew a circle, and divided it into parts. Then he drew more circles, painting sections in red, blue, white, or gold. Circles are important in Orozco's art; he sees them as symbols of movement.

Corplegados, 2011

The Corplegados are large drawings made for a show in 2011. The name means "folded bodies." Orozco folded up large sheets of paper and took them with him on his travels from 2007 to 2011. He drew, painted, and wrote on the paper. The colors and marks soaked through to the other side, creating a ghostly reflection. The drawings were shown in glass frames so viewers could see both sides. They show how the artist's feelings and surroundings changed over time.

Art Shows and Exhibitions

The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York had a solo show of Orozco's work in 1993. They also had a larger exhibition of his past works in 2009. This show then traveled to the Kunstmuseum Basel, the Centre Pompidou in Paris, and the Tate Modern in London.

Gabriel Orozco will have a big show called "Politécnico nacional" at Museo Jumex in Mexico City in 2025. This will be his first museum show in Mexico since 2006.

Where to See His Art

Gabriel Orozco's art is in the permanent collections of many museums. Some of these include:

• Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida (with Samurai Tree (Invariant 260))
• Museum of Modern Art, New York
• Aspen Art Museum, Colorado
• Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
• San Jose Museum of Art, California
• Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (MOCA)
• Dallas Museum of Art, Texas
• Philadelphia Museum of Art, Pennsylvania
• Whitney Museum of American Art, New York
• Noguchi Museum, Queens
• Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Illinois
• Tate, London
• Museo Reina Sofia, Spain

Films About Gabriel Orozco

• Art:21 Film on Gabriel Orozco, 2003
• Gabriel Orozco, 2002, directed by Juan Carlos Martin with music by Manuel Rocha Iturbide

See also

In Spanish: Gabriel Orozco para niños