Carlos Amorales
Carlos Amorales (Mexico City, 1970) is a multidisciplinary artist who studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. The most extensive researches in his work encompass Los Amorales (1996-2001), Liquid Archive (1999–2010), Nuevos Ricos (2004–2009), and a typographic exploration in junction with cinema (2013–present).
Also recorded as Puro · C. Amorales
Carlos Amorales

Haemmerli · CC BY-SA 3.0
- Name
- Carlos Amorales
- Born
- 1970
- Birthplace
- Mexico City
- Known for
- Performance art, Animation, Painting, Drawing, Sculpture
- Nationality
- Mexico.
- Occupation
- draftsperson, painter, printmaker, photographer, installation artist, sculptor, video artist and animator.
- Fields
- performance art, visual arts, performance artwork and painting.
- Movements
- contemporary art.
- Education
- Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten.
- Languages
- Spanish.
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Documentary summary
Carlos Amorales (Mexico City, 1970) is a multidisciplinary artist who studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. The most extensive researches in his work encompass Los Amorales (1996-2001), Liquid Archive (1999–2010), Nuevos Ricos (2004–2009), and a typographic exploration in junction with cinema (2013–present).
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Documentary evidence
Documentary basis
Authority files
gnd · 10173003-2 · wikidata · Q5041755 · wikipedia · Carlos Amorales
In this article
Biography
Biography
Carlos Amorales studied at Rijksakademie van beeldende kunsten. The recorded working language is Spanish. The field of work recorded is performance art, visual arts and performance artwork. Subjects and genres recorded for the work are installation art and conceptual art. Places of work recorded in the authority are Amsterdam and Mexico City. Work by Carlos Amorales is recorded in the collections of Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Tate, Museum of Modern Art, National Museum of World Cultures and Stedelijk Museum voor Actuele Kunst.
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Carlos Amorales • Born — 1970 • Birthplace — Mexico City • Known for — Performance art, Animation, Painting, Drawing, Sculpture
Biography
Biography
Carlos Amorales (Mexico City, 1970) lives and works in Mexico. He is a multidisciplinary artist who studied at the Gerrit Rietveld Academy and the Rijksakademie in Amsterdam. He has participated in residencies with Atelier Calder, Saché, France (2012); Mac/Val, Val-de-Marne, France (2011); and the Smithsonian Artists Research Fellowship, Washington, D.C. (2010).
Career
Career
Amorales works in a variety of media, including video, animation, painting, drawing, sculpture, and performance. Much of his work explores the limits of language and translation systems to venture into the field of cultural experimentation. He uses graphic production as a tool to develop linguistic structures and alternative working models that allow new forms of interpretation and foster collectivity. In his projects, Amorales examines identity-construction processes, proposes a constant re-signification of forms present in his work, and provokes a clash between art and pop culture. Since 1998 Amorales has been building his "Liquid Archive", a digital database of his drawings in the form of vector graphics which he uses to produce visual compositions in various media. The graphics, birds, spiders, trees, and kneeling figures in blacks, reds, and grays reappear throughout his work and provide his signature style. In 2007, Amorales lent his "Liquid Archive" to the Dutch graphic-design duo Mevis & Van Deursen (Armand Mevis and Linda van Deursen) who collaborated with Amorales to produce the book "Carlos Amorales: Liquid Archive, Why Fear The Future". His early works also featured masked Mexican wrestlers inspired by the Lucha libre fighters performing in wrestling rings throughout the world. In 2003, the wrestling performance Amorales v. Amorales was staged at the Tate Modern in London, the Pompidou Center in Paris and the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. His animation piece, Useless Wonder (2006) was shown at the Miami Basel art fair. Amorales has had solo exhibitions at the MALBA in Buenos Aires, at the Milton Keynes Gallery in Milton Keynes, UK, at the Yvon Lambert Gallery in Paris, at the MUAC in Mexico City, and at the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In 2008 his exhibition Discarded Spider toured at the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati. For this show, Amorales also staged a performance with the Cincinnati Ballet. In 2015 his work "Triangle Constellation" was installed in the Calderwood courtyard of the Harvard University Art Museums. His sculpture "Dark Mirror" is included in the collections of Pérez Art Museum Miami, Florida. He has had numerous solo exhibitions: "Black Cloud", (The Power Plant, Toronto, 2015); "El Esplendor Geométrico" [The Geometric Splendor], (Kurimanzutto, México, 2015); "Germinal" (Museo Tamayo, México, 2013); "Nuevos Ricos" (Kunsthalle Fridericianum, Kassel, 2010); "Four Animations, Five Drawings and a Plague" (Philadelphia Museum of Art, 2008); and "Discarded Spider" (Cincinnati Art Center, 2008), to mention a few.
Exhibitions
Exhibitions
Amorales has exhibited in many solo and group exhibitions, including:
Select solo exhibitions
Select solo exhibitions
• Germinal, Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City (2013) • Four Animations, Five Drawings, and a Plague, Philadelphia Museum of Art (2008)
Select group exhibitions
Select group exhibitions
• 50th Venice Biennale, Dutch Pavilion (2003) • PERFORMA07, New York (2007) • Martian Museum of Terrestrial Art, Barbican Centre (2008) • Manifesta 9 (2012) • Sharjah Biennial 11 (2013) • Liverpool Biennial (2014) • What We Have Overlooked, Framed Framed (2016)
Art market
Art market
Amorales is represented by kurimanzutto in Mexico City.
Career and activity
Career and activity
Carlos Amorales worked in performance art, visual arts, performance artwork, painting and art of sculpture. His work is associated with contemporary art. He worked at Amsterdam and Mexico City.
Identity
Identity
Carlos Amorales is recorded as draftsperson, painter, printmaker, photographer and installation artist.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 1 entries
1970
Carlos Amorales born at Mexico City.
Catalogued output
Catalogued works
Factory - Carlos Amorales
Carlos Amorales - dark mirror
Public collections
Public collections
The artist's work is featured in many public collections, including: • Cisneros Foundation, New York • La Colección Jumex, Mexico City • Guggenheim Museum, New York • Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin • Margulies Collection, Miami • Minneapolis Institute of Art • Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City • Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City • Museum of Modern Art, New York • Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam • Pérez Art Museum Miami • Philadelphia Museum of Art • Walker Art Center, Minneapolis
Documents and archives
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q5041755: Carlos Amorales
Reputable secondary · Wikimedia Foundation
- “Carlos Amorales”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
authority file
- Gemeinsame Normdatei 10173003-2, Exhibition Carlos Amorales - Dark Mirror (2007 : Zürich).
General reference · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Literature
Literature
Literature
Amorales, Carlos, Oxford Art Online, 2018
Scholarly footprint
Literature
Scholarly footprint
A count of publications is evidence of attention, not of standing, and is given here only as a measure.
Citations
References
Each reference names the institution holding it, so a reader may go to the document itself.
authority file
Gemeinsame Normdatei 10173003-2, Exhibition Carlos Amorales - Dark Mirror (2007 : Zürich).Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Secondary witnessreference work
Wikidata, structured authority record Q5041755: Carlos AmoralesWikimedia Foundation
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 16 August 2026.
Elsewhere in Prints
4,138 published records in this field, each with its sources named.
- Carlo RestallinoEngraver
- Carlo RidolfiEngraver
- Carlo ServoliniEngraver
- Carlos Alvarado LangEngraver
- Carlos de HaesEngraver
- Carlos GretheEngraver
- Carmela GrossEngraver
- Carmen CoulombeEngraver
Best supported in this field
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