| Poetic sculptures and readymades by the important Mexican artist

The influential Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco (* 1962) makes use of many different kinds of materials and techniques. He has presented drawings, photographs, sound works, paintings, installations, and sculptures, while his works have been seen at documentas X and 11 and at the Venice Biennial.

Orozco appropriates everyday objects and transforms them through his interventions. Some of his works have an ostensibly playful aspect—such as the twin ping-pong tables next to a lily-pad pond, Ping Pond Table (1998), or the absurdly comic chessboard, Horses Running Endlessly (1995), which is populated only by knights. Other works, such as the human skull covered in a checkerboard grid, Black Kites, are disturbing artifacts of sublime allure. Orozco’s works are set in that in-between area that links art and reality, deliberately blurring the boundaries between everyday and art objects.

Exhibition schedule: MoMA, New York, December 13, 2009–March 1, 2010 | Kunstmuseum Basel, April 18–August 10, 2010 | Musée national d'art moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, September 15, 2010–January 3, 2011 |Tate Modern, London February 16–May 22, 2011