Miguel Angel Ríos

MIGUEL ANGEL RÍOS
[1943, Argentina]

Miguel Angel Ríos studied at the Escuela de Bellas Artes in Buenos Aires before moving to New York in the 1970s to escape the military dictatorship in Argentina. He subsequently relocated to Mexico and now divides his time between the USA and Mexico.

In his work, Ríos pairs a rigorous conceptual approach with a meticulously constructed and often handmade aesthetic. Since the 1970s, he has made work about the concept of the "Latin American," using this idea as both an artistic strategy and a political problem. In the 1990s, he began creating a series of maps, which he carefully folded and pleated by hand. Marking the 500th anniversary of the "discovery" of the Americas, the maps indicate long histories of power and colonial experience, and they reference traditional Indigenous arts in the Americas, including the Andean quipu.

Since the early 2000s, Ríos has also delved into the medium of video to create symbolic narratives about human experience, violence, and mortality. For example, his videos of spinning tops--trompos--use the childhood game of tops as a backdrop for a meditation on the transience of life and the mechanics of power. In his 2012 Untitled video from The Ghost of Modernity, Ríos references high Modernism--with direct nods to John Cage, Marcel Duchamp, and Donald Judd--in the midst of the Mexican desert. "Is this ghostly geometric figure a lens through which the world can be reinterpreted?" the artist asks. "Or is it the paradigmatic principle of modernist thought that organizes the world around it? Are we inside or outside the cube? "

2025
Miguel Angel Ríos: Merged with Vastness, Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino, Houston, TX, USA

2023
Al Margen de la luz, Galería Karen Huber, Mexico City, Mexico

2022
Miguel Angel Ríos: Deterritorialization, Galerie Akinci, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

2019
Miguel Angel Ríos: The Geopoetics of Things, Momenta Biennale de l’image & Optica, Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Mi nombre es Lima, Galería Barro, Buenos Aires, Argentina
No Way Out, Röda Sten Konsthall Gothenburg, Sweden
Miguel Angel Ríos:  Torn to Shreds, Sicardi | Ayers | Bacino, Houston, TX, USA
Miguel Angel Ríos: On the Edge, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston (MFAH), TX, USA

2017
Miguel Angel Rios:  A Morir (To the Death), Ackland Art Museum, Chapel Hill, NC, USA
Miguel Angel Rios: Neither Colour, nor height, Musée des Civilisations de l’Europe et de la Méditerranée (MUCEM), Marseilles, France
Miguel Angel Rios: Acirema, No es agua Ni Arena la Orilla del Mar, Espaivisor Galeria Visor, Valencia, Spain

2015
Landlocked, Arizona State University Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ, USA
Endless, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA

2013
Folding Borders, Sicardi Gallery, Houston, TX, USA
A través de la frontera, Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros, Mexico City, Mexico

2012
Museé d’Art Moderne de Saint-Étienne, France
Miguel Angel Ríos: Walkabout, Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, IA and Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico

2011
Miguel Angel Ríos, Alonso Garces Galeria, Bogotá, Colombia
Miguel Angel Ríos, Ruth Benzacar Galeria, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Mecha, Nederlans Instituut voor Mediakunst, the Netherlands

2010
Miguel Angel Ríos, Galeria Andres Millan, São Paulo, Brazil
Miguel Angel Ríos, Dunedin Public Art Gallery, Dunedin City Council, New Zealand

2009
Miguel Angel Ríos, Malba-Fundación Costantini, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires, Argentina
On The Edge, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD), CA, USA
Miguel Angel Ríos, EVO Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, USA
Maison Européenne de la Photographie (MEP), Paris, France
Crudo, Galerie Akinci, Amsterdam, the Netherlands

2008
A Morir, Sala de Arte Contemporáneo, Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
Aquí, Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands
Crudo, LA><ART, Los Angeles, CA, USA
White Suit, Galerie Thomas Schulte, Berlin, Germany

2007
Aquí, Ex-convento de Tepoztlán, Morelos, Mexico; Blaffer Art Museum at University of Houston, TX and EVO Gallery, Santa Fe, NM, USA
On The Edge, Marco Noire Contemporary Art, Torino, Italy and ARCO, Madrid, Spain
Fuego Amigo, Ex-convento de la Natividad, Tepoztlán, Morelos, Mexico
A Morir, Phoenix Art Museum, AZ, USA
Aquí, Galeria Milan Antonio, São Paulo, Brazil
Concentrations 49: Miguel Angel Ríos, Dallas Museum of Art, TX, USA

21 C Museum Hotel, Lexington, KY, USA

Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango, Bogotá, Colombia

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

Colección Isabel y Augustín Coppel

Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, New York, NY, USA

Daros Latinamerica Collection, Zürich, Switzerland

Des Moines Art Center, Des Moines, Iowa, USA

Diane and Bruce Halle Collection, Scottsdale, AZ, USA

Fries Museum, Leeuwarden, the Netherlands

Fundación Arte y Mecenazgo, La Caixa, Barcelona, Spain

Fundación Costantini, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano (MALBA), Buenos Aires, Argentina

Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C., USA

Kunsthalle Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

La Maison Européenne de la Photographie, Paris, France

Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), CA, USA