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Álvaro Urbano
MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, 2024. Photo by Dani Pujalte.
MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, 2024. Photo by Dani Pujalte.
MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, 2024. Photo by Dani Pujalte.
MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, 2024. Photo by Dani Pujalte.
MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, 2024. Photo by Dani Pujalte.
MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, 2024. Photo by Dani Pujalte.
MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, Spain, 2024. Photo by Dani Pujalte.
Sculpture Center, Nueva York, EE.UU, 2024.
Sculpture Center, Nueva York, EE.UU, 2024.
Sculpture Center, Nueva York, EE.UU, 2024.
Sculpture Center, Nueva York, EE.UU, 2024.
Sculpture Center, Nueva York, EE.UU, 2024.
Sculpture Center, Nueva York, EE.UU, 2024.
Sculpture Center, Nueva York, EE.UU, 2024.
24th Biennale of Sydney, Ten Thousand Suns, 2024, White Bay Power Station.
Photograph: Document Photography
24th Biennale of Sydney, Ten Thousand Suns, 2024, White Bay Power Station.
Photograph: Document Photography
24th Biennale of Sydney, Ten Thousand Suns, 2024, White Bay Power Station.
Photograph: Document Photography
24th Biennale of Sydney, Ten Thousand Suns, 2024, White Bay Power Station.
Photograph: Document Photography
24th Biennale of Sydney, Ten Thousand Suns, 2024, White Bay Power Station.
Photograph: Document Photography
TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Islas Canarias, Spain, 2023.
TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Islas Canarias, Spain, 2023.
TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Islas Canarias, Spain, 2023.
TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Islas Canarias, Spain, 2023.
TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Islas Canarias, Spain, 2023.
TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Islas Canarias, Spain, 2023.
As part of “Thus Waves Come in Pairs” at Ocean Space, San Lorenzo Church, Venice, Italy, 2023.
As part of “Thus Waves Come in Pairs” at Ocean Space, San Lorenzo Church, Venice, Italy, 2023.
As part of “Thus Waves Come in Pairs” at Ocean Space, San Lorenzo Church, Venice, Italy, 2023.
As part of “Thus Waves Come in Pairs” at Ocean Space, San Lorenzo Church, Venice, Italy, 2023.
As part of “Thus Waves Come in Pairs” at Ocean Space, San Lorenzo Church, Venice, Italy, 2023.
As part of “Thus Waves Come in Pairs” at Ocean Space, San Lorenzo Church, Venice, Italy, 2023.
Travesía Cuatro Guadalajara, Mexico. 2023.
Travesía Cuatro Guadalajara, Mexico. 2023.
Travesía Cuatro Guadalajara, Mexico. 2023.
Travesía Cuatro Guadalajara, Mexico. 2023.
Travesía Cuatro Guadalajara, Mexico. 2023.
Travesía Cuatro Guadalajara, Mexico. 2023.
Travesía Cuatro CDMX, Mexico. 2023.
Travesía Cuatro CDMX, Mexico. 2023.
Travesía Cuatro CDMX, Mexico. 2023.
Travesía Cuatro CDMX, Mexico. 2023.
Travesía Cuatro CDMX, Mexico. 2023.
Travesía Cuatro CDMX, Mexico. 2023.
Travesía Cuatro CDMX, Mexico. 2023.
Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York, United States. Dec 4, 2021 – Feb 26, 2022.
Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York, United States. Dec 4, 2021 – Feb 26, 2022.
Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York, United States. Dec 4, 2021 – Feb 26, 2022.
Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York, United States. Dec 4, 2021 – Feb 26, 2022.
Travesía Cuatro Madrid, 09 Sep – 20 Nov 2021.
Travesía Cuatro Madrid, 09 Sep – 20 Nov 2021.
Travesía Cuatro Madrid, 09 Sep – 20 Nov 2021.
Travesía Cuatro Madrid, 09 Sep – 20 Nov 2021.
TEA Tenerife Space of Arts, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain, July 2, 2021 – September 26, 2021.
Autostrada Biennale, The National Library of Kosovo “Pjetër Bogdani”, Prishtina, Kosovo, 2021.
Autostrada Biennale, The National Library of Kosovo “Pjetër Bogdani”, Prishtina, Kosovo, 2021.
Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy, October 30, 2020 – July 18, 2021.
Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy, October 30, 2020 – July 18, 2021.
Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy, October 30, 2020 – July 18, 2021.
Curated by Adam Budak, Ortisei, South Tyrol, Italy, 2020
Curated by Adam Budak, Ortisei, South Tyrol, Italy, 2020
La Casa Encendida, Madrid, curated by José Esparza Chong Cuy.
28 February 2020 – 10 January 2021
La Casa Encendida, Madrid, curated by José Esparza Chong Cuy.
28 February 2020 – 10 January 2021
La Casa Encendida, Madrid, curated by José Esparza Chong Cuy.
28 February 2020 – 10 January 2021
La Casa Encendida, Madrid, curated by José Esparza Chong Cuy.
28 February 2020 – 10 January 2021
La Casa Encendida, Madrid, curated by José Esparza Chong Cuy.
28 February 2020 – 10 January 2021
Two raccoon costumes, various trash objects, fabric Dimensions variable
ARCOmadrid Special Projects with ChertLüdde, 2020 & I DREAMED I WAS A HOUSE, Casino Luxembourg Forum d’art contemporain, Luxembourg. Group exhibition curated by insitu collective, 2019
ARCOmadrid Special Projects with ChertLüdde, 2020 & I DREAMED I WAS A HOUSE, Casino Luxembourg Forum d’art contemporain, Luxembourg. Group exhibition curated by insitu collective, 2019
ARCOmadrid Special Projects with ChertLüdde, 2020 & I DREAMED I WAS A HOUSE, Casino Luxembourg Forum d’art contemporain, Luxembourg. Group exhibition curated by insitu collective, 2019
Art Basel Statements with ChertLüdde, 2019
Art Basel Statements with ChertLüdde, 2019
Art Basel Statements with ChertLüdde, 2019
Presented by Storefront for Art and Architecture, August 2020
The Playground Project – Outdoor Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, 2018
The Playground Project – Outdoor Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, 2018
Part of “Welcome to the Jungle”, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, 2018
Part of “That Time”, Cycle Music and Art Festival. Curated by Eva Wilson Kópavogur, Iceland, 2016
Solo show, ChertLüdde, Berlin, 2017
Solo show, ChertLüdde, Berlin, 2017
Solo show, ChertLüdde, Berlin, 2017
Solo show, ChertLüdde, Berlin, 2017
Solo show, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, 2017
Solo show, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, 2017
Festival of Future Nows – 2nd Edition, Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart, 2017
Villa Empain, Boghossian Foundation, Brussels, 2016
Villa Empain, Boghossian Foundation, Brussels, 2016
Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, 2016
Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, 2016
Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, 2016
Festival of Future Nows – 1st Edition, Neue Nationalgalerie, 2014
Festival of Future Nows – 1st Edition, Neue Nationalgalerie, 2014
Mole Antonelliana, National Cinema Museum of Turin, curated by Treti Galaxie, 2016
Mole Antonelliana, National Cinema Museum of Turin, curated by Treti Galaxie, 2016
Art & Nature. Walking with Senses, curated by BAU (Simone Mair, Lisa Mazza, Filipa Ramos), Merano – Dorf Tirol, Italy, 2016
Art & Nature. Walking with Senses, curated by BAU (Simone Mair, Lisa Mazza, Filipa Ramos), Merano – Dorf Tirol, Italy, 2016
Art & Nature. Walking with Senses, curated by BAU (Simone Mair, Lisa Mazza, Filipa Ramos), Merano – Dorf Tirol, Italy, 2016
W.L.G.T.D.W.I (What’s Love Gotta Do With It), Group Exhibition, S.A.L.T.S., Basel, 2015
W.L.G.T.D.W.I (What’s Love Gotta Do With It), Group Exhibition, S.A.L.T.S., Basel, 2015
W.L.G.T.D.W.I (What’s Love Gotta Do With It), Group Exhibition, S.A.L.T.S., Basel, 2015
W.L.G.T.D.W.I (What’s Love Gotta Do With It), Group Exhibition, S.A.L.T.S., Basel, 2015
W.L.G.T.D.W.I (What’s Love Gotta Do With It), Group Exhibition, S.A.L.T.S., Basel, 2015
Villa Romana, Florence, 2013 & Ärger im Paradise (Trouble in Paradise), Group Exhibition curated by Rein Wolfs, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, 2015
Villa Romana, Florence, 2013 & Ärger im Paradise (Trouble in Paradise), Group Exhibition curated by Rein Wolfs, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, 2015
Villa Romana, Florence, 2013 & Ärger im Paradise (Trouble in Paradise), Group Exhibition curated by Rein Wolfs, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, 2015
Pavillon Social Kunstverein in Lucca, 2014/2015
Pavillon Social Kunstverein in Lucca, 2014/2015
Pavillon Social Kunstverein in Lucca, 2014/2015
Garden of Villa Romana, Florence, 2014
Garden of Villa Romana, Florence, 2014
Installation at Chert Gallery, 2015
Glassauge, Berlin.
Installation at Chert Gallery, 2015
Álvaro Urbano’s work involves an archeology of desires and past intentions. By creating atmospheres that replicate specific spaces and architectural gestures, the artist explores the narratives that are embedded in these built bodies. Urbano borrows strategies from theater and filmmaking–such as lighting, sound and costumes–in order to explore new formats of immersiveness, his projects are often structured as scenes or sequenced chapters. The interweaving of different media is used to generate situations that approach liminal and oniric dimensions transforming the exhibition space into a vessel of phantasms and apparitions.
These staged realities are inhabited by vegetal and animal elements, only from a close distance these entities reveal themselves as intricate organic simulations. Functioning as active characters instead of passive props, they interact with the viewers within an established fictional setting, generating parallel stories derived from botanical sensitivities and the common ground of art history. Urbano uses the “what-if” as a narrative trigger for exploring the volitional underground that can be unearthed from these modernist and contemporary ruins, often verging into the hallucinatory realm.
The exercise of re-creating and re-framing architecture becomes an intimate exploration of the subjectivity of other artists and the social context in which these spaces were considered as functional, innovative or condemned to oblivion. Figures such as Federico García Lorca, Luis Barragán, Eileen Gray and Oscar Wilde appear in these stagings as elusive figures enriched with fantasy and speculation. Mimicry is used by Urbano as a platform in which illusion derives in humorous transformation; parody and homage bloom in synchrony.
Urbano has presented his work in exhibitions and projects at SculptureCenter, New York, US; TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Canary Islands, ES; Bergen Assembly, Bergen, NO; Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York, US; La Casa Encendida, Madrid, ES; Art Basel Statements, Basel, CH, with ChertLüdde; Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, DE; Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, DE; Boghossian Foundation, Brussels, BE; Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, DE; Hamburger Bahnhof, Berlin, DE; CAB, Brussels, BE; Moscow International Biennale for Young Art, Moscow, UK; PAC, Padiglione d’Arte Contemporanea, Milan, IT; Neue Nationalgalerie, Berlin, DE; among others.
Urbano’s work is part of Hamburger Bahnhof Collection, Berlin, DE; Collection Lafayette Anticipations – Fonds de dotation Famille Moulin, Paris, FR; TEA Tenerife, SP; TBA21, Madrid, SP; Collegium, Arévalo, SP; Colección Museo Jumex, Mexico City, MX; and Fonds régional d’art contemporain Bretagne, Rennes, FR.
Together with Petrit Halilaj (b. 1986, Kostërrc, XK), his partner and frequent artistic collaborator, Urbano received in 2014 the Villa Romana Fellowship. They attended The Artists and Architects-in-Residence at MAK, Los Angeles (2016/2017) and hold a joint professorship at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts de Paris, FR. Urbano and Halilaj have presented their joint work at MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona, Barcelona, SP; Sydney Biennial, Sydney, AU; Ocean Space, Venice, IT; Bally Foundation, Lugano, CH; Frankfurter Kunstverein, DE; Palacio de Cristal, Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid, SP; Autostrada Biennale at the National Library, Prishtina, XK; the 17th Quadriennale di Roma, Rome, IT; the Biennale Gherdëina, in Ortisei, IT and S.A.L.T.S., Basel, CH.
Álvaro Urbano studied Interior Architecture at the ETSAM in Madrid, and Fine Arts at the Institut für Raumexperimente, Universität der Künste in Berlin; he lives and works between Berlin and Paris.
ARTFORUM: Álvaro Urbano at SculptureCenter reviewed by Daniel Belasco
“Urbano’s site-specific installation probed the multifaceted output of Burton, whose work as a queer artist elaborating on Conceptual and post-Minimalist explorations of situations and behaviors has received considerable reevaluation in the past few years.” Read the full article in ARTFORUM.
VIII Edition of the Catalina D’Anglade Art Prize | Álvaro Urbano
Within the framework of ARCOmadrid 2025, VEINS (2024) by Álvaro Urbano was awarded as the winning work of the VIII Catalina D’Anglade Art Prize in the presence of Maribel López, director of the fair. In the words of the artist, the winning work reflects “the representation of a discreet place, a place of passage or waiting. On the street you wouldn’t stop to look at it, but for me it reflects the poetics of the moment”.
SCULPTURE CENTER, New York | Álvaro Urbano
As part of Alvaro Urbano’s solo exhibition Tableau Vivant, inspired by the life and work of American sculptor Scott Burton, a talk between art historian David J. Getsy and artist Tom Burr about Scott Burton will take place on Thursday, February 27 at 6:30pm at the Sculpture Center in New York.
Acto I: La Eterna Adolescencia
Canary Islands, Spain 2024
In the garden
Authors: Graciela Silvestri, Luis Felipe Fabre, Santiago Beruete and Magnolia de la Garza
2023
Thus Waves Come in Pairs, Thinking with the Mediterraneans
Artists: Álvaro Urbano & Petrit Halilaj
Collaborators: Jumana Emil Abboud, Omar Berrada, Pietro Consolandi, Övül Ö. Durmusoglu, Zeyn Joukhadar, Ibrahim Nehme, Giovanna Silva, Petrit Halilaj & Álvaro Urbano.
Design by bruno | Sternberg Press & TBA21-Academy, 2023
English
GRANADA GRANADA Un Romancero
Artist: Álvaro Urbano
Author: Isabel Abascal
Design: Estudio Herrera
Travesía Cuatro
Guadalajara | CDMX | Madrid, 2023
Ever Since Night Falls
Artist: Álvaro Urbano
Authors: Álvaro Urbano and Joan Lee
ChertLüdde
Berlin, 2019
