Abraham Cruzvillegas Joins Galerie Thomas Schulte

The Mexican artist is known for his autoconstrucctión or 'self-building' approach to sculpture, inspired by the difficult living conditions of his childhood neighbourhood of Colonia Ajusco.

Galerie Thomas Schulte in Berlin has announced the representation of artist Abraham Cruzvillegas, who has contributed to Mexico City's conceptual art movement since the 1980s and is collected by major institutions, including Tate and Centre Pompidou.

The gallery first showed Cruzvillegas' work in 2021, when the artist's installation consisting of boxes of varying sizes and painted in different hues was presented on the two walls of its nine-metre-high, street-facing Corner Space during Berlin Art Week.

The site-specific work, Unbetiteltes Tautologisches Selbstportrait (2021), is representative of the artist's use of found, discarded, and everyday objects—in this case, empty packaging the artist asked gallery staff to collect in preparation for the project.

Cruzvillegas describes his approach as autoconstrucción, or 'self-construction'. The term refers to the DIY approach to building housing using found or recycled materials, common in his childhood neighbourhood of Colonia Ajusco in Mexico City.

The artist has reappropriated the term in relation to personal identity, noting this housing is built and destroyed according to people's needs. In his sculptural work, Cruzvillegas similarly employs inexpensive and used materials to explore the nature of self-construction.

Born in 1968, Cruzvillegas studied philosophy and art at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, where he later taught art history and theory. Currently, he lives in Paris and has taught sculpture at École des Beaux-Arts since 2018. His practice further includes painting, drawing, and video.

Cruzvillegas will stay with his current galleries Galerie Chantal Crousel (Paris); Kurimanzutto (Mexico City/New York); and Thomas Dane Gallery (London). —[O]

Abraham Cruzvillegas' site-specific permanent installation Two Untitled Maps (An Alchemical Self-Portrait), commissioned by Louis M. Martini Winery in St Helana, California, will be unveiled on 24 January 2025.