Gabriel de la Mora

Gabriel de la Mora, 900 VII (detail), 2020. Pigmented turkey feathers on museum cardboard, 16 7/8 x 16 7/8 x 1 9/16 in. (43 x 43 x 4 cm.)

Gabriel de la Mora, 1,205 II, 2020. Pigmented turkey feathers on museum cardboard, 16 7/8 x 16 7/8 x 1 9/16 in. (43 x 43 x 4 cm.)

Gabriel de la Mora, CI / 444 III, 2017. Microscope coverslips on cardboard, 41 18 x 3 in. / 104.3 x 83.9 x 7.7 cm.

Gabriel de la Mora, CI / 475 I, 2017. Microscope coverslips on cardboard, 41 x 33 x 3 in / 104 x 83.9 x 7.7 cm.

Gabriel de la Mora, CI / 940 III, 2017. Microscope coverslips on cardboard, 41 x 33 x 3 1/8 in. / 104.1 x 83.8 x 7.9 cm.

Gabriel de la Mora, CI / 931, 2017. Microscope coverslips on cardboard, 20 7/8 x 16 1/2 x 3 7/8 in. / 53 x 42 x 10cm.

Gabriel de la Mora, CI / 154 I, 2017. Microscope coverslips on cardboard, 20 3/18 x 16 1/2 x 2 3/8 in. / 51.8 x 41.8 x 6 cm.

CI / 126 I, 2017. Microscope coverslips on cardboard, 20 3/8 x 16 3/8 x 2 3/8 in. / 51.6 x 41.5 x 6 cm.

Gabriel de la Mora, CI / 84 I - cl, 2017. Microscope coverslips and lacquer on cardboard, 16 1/2 x 20 5/8 x 2 3/8 in. / 41.9 x 52.4 x 6 cm.

Gabriel de la Mora, CI / 84 V - cl, 2017. Microscope coverslips and lacquer on cardboard, 16 1/2 x 20 5/8 x 2 3/8 in. / 41.9 x 52.4 x 6 cm.

Gabriel de la Mora, CI / 84 IV - cl, 2017. Microscope coverslips and lacquer on cardboard, 16 5/8 x 20 5/8 x 2 3/8 in / 41.9 x 52.3 x 6 cm.

Gabriel de la Mora, CI / 84 II - cl, 2017. Microscope coverslips and lacquer on cardboard, 16 5/8 x 20 5/8 x 2 3/8 in. / 42.1 x 52.3 6 cm.

Gabriel de la Mora, B-118, 2015. Fabric removed from radio speakers,11 1/2 x 21 7/8 x 1 13/16 in. / 29.2 x 54.8 x 4.5 cm.

Gabriel de la Mora, B 201, 2015. Fabric removed from radio speakers, 22 5/16 in. x 15 1/16 in. x 1 13/16 in.

Gabriel de la Mora, B-193, 2015. Fabric removed from radio speakers,11 7/16 x 20 x 1 13/16 in. / 29 x 50.7 x 4.5 cm.

Gabriel de la Mora, MCI / 26 - I f, 2015. Discarded offset printing rubber blankets, wood mounting, 70 11/16 x 94 1/2 x 2 3/8 in. / 180 x 240 x 6 cm.

Gabriel de la Mora, MCI / 12 - I f, 2015. Discarded offset printing rubber blankets, wood mounting, 35 7/16 x 23 5/8 x 1 9/16 in. / 90 x 60 x 4 cm.

Gabriel de la Mora, CI / 202, 2015. Glass microscope slides, 17 7/8 in. x 11 15/16 in. x 2 5/16 in.

Gabriel de la Mora, 9,114, 2015. Eggshells on wood with graphite, 11 13/16 in. x 11 13/16 in. x 1 5/8 in.

Gabriel de la Mora, 173,900 from the series Cerillos Cancelados, 2014. 6,956 used sides of match boxes from 3,478 burnt matches on cardboard, 79 x 63 in. / 200 x 161 cm.

Gabriel de la Mora, MCI / 3 - III f, 2013. Discarded offset printing rubber blankets, wood mounting, 35 7/16 x 23 5/8 x 1 9/16 in. / 90 x 60 x 4 cm.

Gabriel de la Mora, 215, from the series El Peso Del Pensamiento, 2013. Discarded shoe soles mounted on lead, 23 1/4 x 33 3/16 x 1 7/8 in. / 58.7 x 84.3 x 4.7 cm.

Gabriel de la Mora, Alvaro Obregon 148, 2012. Torn posters, fixed with resistol on canvas, mounted on wood, 78 3/4 in. x 78 3/4 in. x 1 9/16 in.

Gabriel de la Mora, R.P. I, 2012. Hair on paper, 40 7/8 in. x 26 7/8 in. x 2 3/8 in.

Gabriel de la Mora, Idea 596, 2011. 596 Post it flags and pencil on paper, 17 1/8 x 10 7/8 x 5 1/8 in. / 43.5 x 27.5 x 13 cm.

Gabriel de la Mora, M.E.T.A.M II, 2008. Tied human hair (METAM) on paper in acrylic box, 6 x 12 x 12 in. / 15.2 x 30.4 x 30.4 cm.

Gabriel de la Mora, Sound Inscriptions on Fabric, installation view. The Drawing Center, New York, July 15 - September 2, 2016

Gabriel de la Mora, T.O.E.F.M.U.T.I.T.O.A.I.I., installation view. Sicardi Gallery, 2012.

Biography

GABRIEL DE LA MORA (b. 1968, Mexico)

“…art is not created nor destroyed; it is only transformed, just as energy is.”

After studying architecture at the Universidad Anáhuac del Norte 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 New York.

Since the early 2000s, de la Mora has collected detritus and ephemera ranging from hair to found photographs, shoe soles to painted ceilings. He transforms these objects, using meticulous craftsmanship to call attention to their original uses, while also making conceptual investigations into the nature of art. Curator and art historian Willy Kautz has written, “Gabriel de la Mora’s work lies in questioning and experimenting with the interstitial limits between painting, drawing, and sculpture. … Linking constructivist languages with the evocative, fortuitous discoveries of dadaist experience, de la Mora updates the minimalist/conceptual optic to reveal the intimate and personal within the universal convention of modernist abstraction.”

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. The artist lives and works in Mexico City.

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Selected Solo Exhibitions

2022
Gabriel de la Mora: PSICOTROPICAL, Proyectos Monclova, México City, México
Gabriel de la Mora, The Philadelphia Art Alliance of the University of the Arts, Philadelphia, PA, USA

2021
Gabriel de la Mora: Unearthing the Mirror, Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino, Houston, TX, USA
El poeta es el autor que desaparece, Museo Francisco Goitia, Zacatecas, México
Gabriel de la Mora: Lepidoptera, Galerie Perrotin, New York, NY, USA

2020
Originalmentefalso: Gabriel de la Mora, Museo Nacional de Arte (MUNAL), México City, México
Gabriel de la Mora: Neornithes, Timothy Taylor, London, UK

2019
Gabriel de la Mora: Inevidencias, Casa de México en España, Madrid, Spain
Gabriel de la Mora: TNTR AA, Perrotin, New York, NY, USA
Gabriel de la Mora: ÉCHO, Galerie Perrotin Paris, France
Gabriel de la Mora/Sofie Muller:Pentimento, Proyectos Monclova, México City, México

2018
Gabriel de la Mora: Técnicas y Contextos, Pinacoteca de la Universidad de Colima, Colima, México
Gabriel de la Mora: Entropías, Proyectos Monclova, México City, México

2017
Crystals of Inevidence, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA

2016
Gabriel de la Mora; Sounds Inscriptions on Fabric, The Drawing Center, New York, NY, USA
Gabriel de la Mora: Serial, Timothy Taylor, London, UK

2015
(f), Galeria OMR, México City, México

2014
Lucíferos, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
Lo que no vemos lo que nos mira, Museo Amparo, Puebla, México

2012
T.O.E.F.M.U.T.I.T.O.A.I.I., Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
Exposición Panamericana, NC Arte, Bogotá, Colombia
Señales Aleatorias/Ruido Blanco, Museo de Arte de Sonora (MUSAS), Hermosillo, México

2011
Ruido Blanco/White Noise, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca (MACO), Oaxaca, México
Originalmentefalso, Galería OMR, México City, México
Frágil/Fragile, Museum of Latin American Art (MoLAA), Long Beach, CA, USA (Project Room)

2008
d.i.b.u.j.o.s., Bastero Kulturgunea, Andoain (Gipuzkoa), Spain
39-G.M.C.-23.sept.07, Conner Contemporary, Washington D.C., USA
Blind Lines, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA

2007
Brújula de cuestiones, Galería OMR, México City, México

2006
Extensions, Galerie La Serre, École Régionale des Beaux-Arts Saint-Étienne, France

2004
00-04, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Colima, Colima, México

2003
G.M. antes y después, Ministry of Culture of the state of Colima, 10 venues in México

2001
Serie Homenaje a Robert Mapplethorpe, Galería Nina Menocal, México City, México

1997
The Form Without Form, Art Museum of the Americas, Washington, D.C., USA

1996
La Inconciencia de la Vista, Museo Regional de Historia, Colima, México

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Selected Public Collections

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, NY, USA

Art Museum of the Americas, Organization of American States, Washington, D.C., USA

ARTIUM, Centro-Museo Vasco de Arte Contemporáneo, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain

Centro Gallego de Arte Contemporáneo (CGAC), Santiago de Compostela, Spain

Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO), Miami, FL, USA

Colección Banco de la República, Bogotá, Colombia

Colección Ella Fontanals-Cisneros, Miami Florida, USA

Colección FEMSA, Monterrey, Nuevo León, México

Colección Fundación Televisa, México City, México

Colección Secretaria de Cultura del Estado de Colima, Colima, México

Colección SIVAM, México City, México

Colección Universidad de Colima, México

Colección WTC Artfest, México City, México

El Museo del Barrio, New York, NY, USA

Fundación Neme / Programa NC–ARTE, Bogotá, Colombia

Fundación/Colección JUMEX, México City, México

King Abdulaziz Center for World Culture (Ithra), Dhahran, Saudi Arabia

Museo Amparo, Puebla, México

Museo de Arte Abstracto Manuel Felguerez, Zacatecas, México

Museo de Arte Carillo Gil, (MACG), México City, México

Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Alfredo Zalce, Morelia, Michoacan, México

Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca, Oaxaca, México

Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Internacional Rufino Tamayo, México City, México

Museo de Arte de Sonora (MUSAS), Hermosillo, Sonora, México

Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Zapopan, Jalisco, México

Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, Argentina

Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá, Colombia

Museo de Arte Moderno, México City, México

Museo de la Cancillería, S.R.E., México City, México

Museo del Palacio del Arzobispado, México City, México

Museo Francisco Goitia, Zacatecas, México

Museo Universitario de Arte Conpemporáneo (MUAC), UNAM, México City, México

Museum of Contemporary Art (MoCA), Los Angeles, CA, USA

Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, MA, USA

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), Houston, TX, USA

Museum of Latin American Art (MoLAA), Long Beach, CA, USA

Perez Art Museum Miami Collection (PAMM), Miami, FL, USA

Richard E. Peeler Art Center, DePauw University, Greencastle, IN, USA

Sayago Pardon Collection, Irvine, CA, USA

Secretaría de Cultura del Estado de Colima, México

Speed Art Museum, Louisville, KY, USA

UBS Art Collection, México City, México