Gabriel de la Mora

GABRIEL DE LA MORA
[1968, Mexico]

After studying architecture at the Universidad Anáhuac del Norte (UAN) from 1987-1991, Gabriel de la Mora began his career as a practicing architect. After five years he redirected his work, focusing instead on visual art, and in 2003 he received a Master of Fine Arts degree in painting at Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, New York. De la Mora lives and works in Mexico City.

In 2004, de la Mora decided to leave traditional painting to pursue the idea of painting without painting - to explore new possibilities of painting, drawing, and sculpture. He made a series of drawings with hair and began to collect, classify, and use detritus and ephemera including egg shells, rubber blankets, the strike sides of matchboxes, feathers, butterfly wings, found photographs, shoe soles, and old painted ceilings. He transforms these objects, using meticulous artisanship, to call attention to their original uses while also making conceptual investigations into the nature of art.

Much of de la Mora’s production focuses upon the intimate functions of objects that, outlasting their usefulness, have been discarded. By repurposing found things, de la Mora points to the actions of time upon the object. In his collected chips of paint and fabric painted ceilings, for example, he suggests that the painting came into existence long before the artist came into contact with it and placed it upon a canvas. In this way, he is also drawn to the visual and affective power of archival collections. He often works with old photographs and found papers. These materials are weighted with mysteries from the past—their hidden narratives are central to de la Mora’s conceptual and formal interests.

De la Mora's work has been shown in selected exhibitions around the world, including Nuevas Adquisiciones, Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, CGAC, Santiago de Compostela, Spain (2005); Tres décadas de arte en expansión, 1980 al presente, Colección de Arte del Banco de la República, Bogotá, Colombia (2014); Gabriel de la Mora; Sound Inscriptions on Fabric, The Drawing Center, New York City, New York, USA (2016); Home--So Different, So Appealing: Art from the Americas since 1957, Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), California, USA (2017); Ruta Mística, Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico and Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey (MARCO), Mexico (2013); Lo que no vemos lo que nos mira, Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico (2014);

Sumatorio: Nuevas Incorporaciones a la Colección Carrillo Gil, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil (MACG), Mexico City, Mexico (2019);Ruido Blanco/White Noise, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca (MACO), Oaxaca de Juárez, Mexico (2011); El poeta es el autor que desaparece, Museo Francisco Goitia, Zacatecas, Mexico (2021); Originalmentefalso: Gabriel de la Mora, Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL), Mexico City, Mexico (2020); Colección Museo Tamayo, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico (2020);Superficies del deseo, Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), UNAM, Mexico City, Mexico (2010); MOCA´S Permanent Collection: A Selection of Recent Acquisitions, The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, California, USA (2013); North Looks South: Building the Latin American Collection, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), Texas, USA (2009); and Home--So Different, So Appealing, The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), Texas, USA (2017).

De la Mora’s works are represented in several major collections including Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, USA; Art Museum of the Americas, Washington DC, USA; Artium Museoa, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain; Centro Galego de Arte Contemporánea, CGAC, Santiago de Compostela, Spain; Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO), Miami, Florida, USA; Colección FEMSA, Monterrey, Mexico; Colección SIVAM, Mexico City, Mexico; Colección Universidad de Colima, Mexico; Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico; Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil (MACG), Mexico City, Mexico; Museo de Arte de la SHCP, Antiguo Palacio del Arzobispado, Mexico City, Mexico; Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA), Argentina; Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, Mexico; Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá (MAMBO), Colombia; El Museo del Barrio, New York City, New York, USA; Museo Jumex, Mexico City, Mexico; Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico; Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), UNAM, Mexico City, Mexico; The Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Los Angeles, California, USA; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (MFA), Massachusetts, USA; The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), Texas, USA; Museum of Latin American Art (MoLAA), Long Beach, California, USA; Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Florida, USA; Richard E. Peeler Art Center, DePauw University, Greencastle, Indiana, USA; and Secretaría de Cultura, Gobierno del Estado de Colima, Mexico.

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Biography

Selected Solo Exhibitions

Selected Public Collections