Touch Me
Curated by Gabriela Rangel
July 20 – August 24, 2023
Museum of Contemporary Art in Monterrey (MARCO), 2020. Farsa y Artificio Installation view.
Melanie Smith and Tanya Barson in discussion at Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA), 2018. Farsa y Artificio opening.
Museum of Contemporary Art in Monterrey (MARCO), 2020. Farsa y Artificio Installation view.
Melanie Smith Studio, Mexico City. 2019.
Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA), 2018. Farsa y Artificio Installation view.
Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art (MACBA), 2018. Opening night of solo exhibition Farsa y Artificio.
Museum of Contemporary Art in Monterrey (MARCO), 2020. Farsa y Artificio Installation view.
MELANIE SMITH
[1965, England / Lives and works in London / Mexico City]
Born in Poole, England, Melanie Smith received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Reading, where she studied painting. In 1989, she joined an international community of artists and writers in Mexico City. Her work was included in the first exhibition of installation art in Mexico, curated by Guillermo Santamarina at the Museo de Sitio del Ex Convento del Desierto de los Leones. Since then, the city has played an important role in her work; she has produced installations, videos, films, photographs, and paintings in which she considers Mexico City’s density of population and structures, its production of detritus, and its endless entropy and reconstruction. These concerns are balanced by Smith’s interest in the legacies of modernism and post-avant-garde movements as they manifest themselves in Latin America.
In her 2002 video, Spiral City, Smith filmed one of Mexico City’s suburbs from a helicopter as it flew in a widening spiral over the densely gridded urban space. The video takes Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty as a reference and draws from the unique topography and dramatic immensity of Mexico City. In other projects, she has focused upon the legacies of Surrealism in the Americas.
Smith is currently based in London, England, UK.
Smith's works have been shown in several important exhibitions, including Melanie Smith, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH), Texas, USA (2014); Melanie Smith, Fundação Joaquim Nabuco (FUNDAJ), Recife, Brazil (2012); Seis Pasos Hacia la Realidad, Laboratorio Arte Alameda (LAA), Mexico City, Mexico (2002); Spiral City & Other Vicarious Pleasures, MIT List Visual Arts Center,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA (2009); Melanie Smith. Farsa y Artificio, Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Barcelona, Spain (2018), Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico and Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), UNAM, Mexico City, Mexico (2019), Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey (MARCO), Monterrey, Mexico (2020); Cerca Series: Melanie Smith, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD), San Diego, California, USA (2004); Parres Trilogy, Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), Miami Beach, Florida, USA (2008); Digging Up the Present, Parc Saint-Léger Centre d'Art Contemporain, Pougues-les-Eaux, France (2019); Dream spots: Taxqueña bus station, Sala Diaz, San Antonio, Texas, USA (1996); Melanie Smith, Crocodiles and Elevators, Šiuolaikinio meno centras (ŠMC)(Contemporary Art Centre (CAC)), Vilnius, Lithuania (2014); Parres Trilogy, Art Now, Tate Britain, London, England, UK (2006); and Red Square Impossible Pink, Mexican Pavilion, La Biennale di Venezia, Venice, Italy (2011).
Smith’s works are represented in numerous international collections, including Daros Latinamerica Collection, Zurich, Switzerland; The Diane and Bruce Halle Collection of Latin American Art, Scottsdale, Arizona, USA; Instituto Inhotim, Brumadinho, Brazil; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas, USA; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León (MUSAC), Madrid, Spain;Museo de Arte de Lima (MALI), Peru; Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, Mexico; Museo Jumex, Mexico City, Mexico; Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, The Netherlands; Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York City, New York, USA; and Tate Modern, London, England, UK, among others.
2025
Melanie Smith, El tiempo se siente menos si nos quedamos quietos, Museo de Arte Zapopan, Jalisco, Mexico
2024
Locas y Lapas, Centro Cultural Bodegón, Los Vilos, Chile
Melanie Smith: Clusterfuck, Proyecto Paralelo, Mexico City, Mexico
2023
Tickled Pink, Green with Envy, Parafin, London, UK
2022
Remain detached, Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino, Houston, TX, USA
Fordlândia, Video Room, Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP), Brazil
Fifteen Minutes of Sublime Meditation, Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), Room 10 (online), Mexico City, Mexico
5 Minutes, Pavement Gallery, Manchester School of Art, UK
2021
Fifteen Minutes of Sublime Meditation, Proyecto Paralelo, Mexico City, Mexico
Maria Elena, Ayer, Guadalajara, Mexico
Leave it to the Amateurs, Parafin, London, UK
Bare, Kunsthallo, Virtual Exhibition
2020
Melanie Smith, Farsa y Artificio, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey (MARCO), Mexico
Maria Elena, UK Mexican Arts Society, London, UK
Fordlandia, Cairns Art Gallery, Australia
2019
Digging Up the Present, Saint Leger Centre d´Art Contemporain, Pougues-les-Eaux, France
Melanie Smith, Farsa y Artificio, Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico; Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), Mexico City, Mexico
2018
Melanie Smith, Farsa y Artificio, Museu D’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Spain
Parte o Pedazo, Museo de Arte de la Fundación José Cuervo, Tequila, Mexico
Maria Elena, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zürich, Switzerland
Fake and Farce: Backdrops for Seven Scenes, Proyecto Paralelo, Mexico City, Mexico
2017
Atlas de ausencia, Melanie Smith, Galeria La Caja Negra, Madrid, Spain
Obscuridades Bucólicas, La Tallera, Cuernavaca, Mexico
2016
Abandoned Bodies and Uncertain Futures, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
2015
Fordlandia, LULU, Mexico City, Mexico
Maps, mud and mundo(s), Galería Proyecto Paralelo, Mexico City, Mexico
2014
Fordlandia, Galeria Nara Roesler, São Paulo, Brazil
Melanie Smith, Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Melanie Smith, Contemporary Arts Museum Houston (CAMH), TX, USA
Green is the Colour, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
Fordlandia, Milton Keynes Gallery, Buckinghamshire, UK
Melanie Smith: Crocodiles and Elevators, Contemporary Art Centre (CAC), Vilnius, Lithuania
2013
Irreversible/ Illegible /Unstable, Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico
Xilitla, FLORA ars+natura, Bogotá, Colombia
2012
Short Circuit, Villa Merkel, Esslingen, Germany
Melanie Smith, Fundação Joaquim Nabuco, Recife, Brazil
Melanie Smith, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zürich, Switzerlan
2011
Wall Eyed, Galeria Nara Roesler, São Paulo, Brazil
Bulto, Museo de Arte de Lima, Peru
Red Square Impossible Pink, Mexican Pavilion, 54th International Venice Biennale, Italy
2010
Xilitla: incidentes fuera de eje, Museo Experimental El Eco, Mexico City, Mexico
2009
Spiral City & Other Vicarious Pleasures, MIT List Visual Arts Center, Cambridge, MA, USA
2008
Parres Trilogy, Miami Art Museum (MAM), FL, USA
Resiste, Galería Alberto Sendrós, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Grey (negative) rectangle on white background, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zürich, Switzerland
Urban views, Patrick Painter Gallery, Los Angeles, CA, USA
2007
Melanie Smith: Spiral City & Other Vicarious Pleasures, The Laboratory of Art and Ideas at Beldar, Lakewood, CO, USA
Parres, OMR, Mexico City, Mexico
2006
Spiral City & Other Vicarious Pleasures, Museo Universitario de Ciencias y Artes, MUCA Campus, Mexico City, Mexico
Parres Trilogy, Art Now, Tate Britain, London, UK
2005
Parres Trilogy, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zürich, Switzerland
2004
Cerca Series: Melanie Smith, San Diego Museum of Contemporary Art, CA, USA
Six steps to the unpredictable, Mark Quint Contemporary, La Jolla, CA, USA
2003
Seis pasos hacia la realidad, 2002 and Untitled (works with no sense) 2003, OMR, Mexico City, Mexico
Melanie Smith, Galería Marco Noire Contemporary Art, Torino, Italy
2002
Seis pasos hacia la abstracción, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zürich, Switzerland
Seis Pasos Hacia la Realidad, Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Mexico City, Mexico
2001
100% acrílico, OMR, Mexico City, Mexico
Melanie Smith, Galerie Peter Kilchmann, Zürich, Switzerland
1997
Orange Lush, Instituto Anglo Mexicano de Cultura, Mexico City, Mexico
1996
Hiperconsumismo Ultra mix II, Randolph Street Gallery, Chicago, IL, USA
Dream spots: Taxqueña bus station, Sala Díaz, San Antonio, TX, USA
Striking Distance, Los Angeles, CA, USA
Obra reciente: 1916-1996, OMR, Mexico City, Mexico
1994
En la punta de mi lengua, OMR, Mexico City, Mexico
1992
L’Escaut, Brussels, Belgium
1989
Salón de Los Aztecas, Mexico City, Mexico
Arnold and Mabel Beckman Foundation, Irvine, CA, USA
Arte Contemporáneo en Valencia, Spain
Arts Council, London, UK
Centro Cultural Muros, Cuernavaca, Mexico
Centro de Arte Contemporânea Inhotim, Braumadinho, Brazil
Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami, FL, USA
Colección Fundación ARCO, Madrid, Spain
Colección Isabel y Agustín Coppel, Culiacán, Mexico
Cruz Rojas, Mexico City, Mexico
Daros Latinamerica Collection, Zürich, Switzerland
ESSL Collection, Vienna, Austria
EVN Collection, Maria Enzersdorf, Austria
Fomento Cultural Bancomer, Tamaulipas, Mexico
Fundación BBVA Bancomer, Mexico City, Mexico
Fundación Colección Jumex, Mexico City, Mexico
Fundación Televisa, Mexico City, Mexico
Fundación Vergel, Mexico City, Mexico
Galeria Nara Roesler, São Paulo, Brazil
Grupo de los Dieciséis, Mexico City, Mexico
Inhotim Brazil, Brumadinho, Brazil
Institut Valencià d'Art Modern, Valencia, Spain
Ivor Braka Gallery, London, UK
Jerry Speyer Collection, New York, NY, USA
Lucille & Ronald Neeley Foundation, San Diego, CA, USA
Marco Noire Contemporary Art, Torino, Italy
Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, TX, USA
Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico
Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Castilla y León, Spain
Museo de Arte de Lima, Peru
Museo de Arte Moderno y Contemporáneo de Santander y Cantabria, Spain
Museo de Arte Moderno (MAM), Mexico City, Mexico
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain
Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, Mexico
Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), Mexico City, Mexico
Museo Universitario de Ciencias y Arte, Mexico City, Mexico
Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA), Barcelona, Spain
Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam, the Netherlands
Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY, USA
Peter Kilchmann Gallery, Zürich, Switzerland
Quint Contemporary, La Jolla, CA, USA
Tate Modern, London, UK
The Bruce and Diane Halle Collection, Scottsdale, AZ, USA
The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York, NY, USA
Vergel Foundation, New York, NY, USA
Villa Merkel Städtische Galerie, Esslingen, Germany
Zabludowicz Collection, London, UK
The 10th edition of Liverpool Biennial, the largest festival of contemporary visual art in the UK, opens to the public on Saturday 14 July 2018 marking its 20th anniversary with exhibitions, performances, film screenings, family events and talks. The Biennial runs for 15 weeks until 28 October 2018 across Liverpool’s public spaces, galleries, museums, civic buildings and online.
