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Álvaro Urbano

Madrid, Spain. 1983
Acto I: La Eterna Adolescencia (Installation view)

TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Islas Canarias, Spain, 2023.

Acto I: La Eterna Adolescencia (Installation view)

TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Islas Canarias, Spain, 2023.

Acto I: La Eterna Adolescencia (Installation view)

TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Islas Canarias, Spain, 2023.

Acto I: La Eterna Adolescencia (Installation view)

TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Islas Canarias, Spain, 2023.

Acto I: La Eterna Adolescencia (Installation view)

TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Islas Canarias, Spain, 2023.

Acto I: La Eterna Adolescencia (Installation view)

TEA Tenerife Espacio de las Artes, Islas Canarias, Spain, 2023.

Lunar Ensamble for Uprising Seas (with Petrit Halilaj)

As part of “Thus Waves Come in Pairs” at Ocean Space, San Lorenzo Church, Venice, Italy, 2023.

Lunar Ensamble for Uprising Seas (with Petrit Halilaj)

As part of “Thus Waves Come in Pairs” at Ocean Space, San Lorenzo Church, Venice, Italy, 2023.

Lunar Ensamble for Uprising Seas (with Petrit Halilaj)

As part of “Thus Waves Come in Pairs” at Ocean Space, San Lorenzo Church, Venice, Italy, 2023.

Lunar Ensamble for Uprising Seas (with Petrit Halilaj)

As part of “Thus Waves Come in Pairs” at Ocean Space, San Lorenzo Church, Venice, Italy, 2023.

Lunar Ensamble for Uprising Seas (with Petrit Halilaj)

As part of “Thus Waves Come in Pairs” at Ocean Space, San Lorenzo Church, Venice, Italy, 2023.

Lunar Ensamble for Uprising Seas (with Petrit Halilaj)

As part of “Thus Waves Come in Pairs” at Ocean Space, San Lorenzo Church, Venice, Italy, 2023.

GRANADA GRANADA (Chapter I)

Travesía Cuatro Guadalajara, Mexico. 2023.

GRANADA GRANADA (Chapter I)

Travesía Cuatro Guadalajara, Mexico. 2023.

GRANADA GRANADA (Chapter I)

Travesía Cuatro Guadalajara, Mexico. 2023.

GRANADA GRANADA (Chapter I)

Travesía Cuatro Guadalajara, Mexico. 2023.

GRANADA GRANADA (Chapter I)

Travesía Cuatro Guadalajara, Mexico. 2023.

GRANADA GRANADA (Chapter I)

Travesía Cuatro Guadalajara, Mexico. 2023.

GRANADA GRANADA (Chapter II)

Travesía Cuatro CDMX, Mexico. 2023.

GRANADA GRANADA (Chapter II)

Travesía Cuatro CDMX, Mexico. 2023.

GRANADA GRANADA (Chapter II)

Travesía Cuatro CDMX, Mexico. 2023.

GRANADA GRANADA (Chapter II)

Travesía Cuatro CDMX, Mexico. 2023.

GRANADA GRANADA (Chapter II)

Travesía Cuatro CDMX, Mexico. 2023.

GRANADA GRANADA (Chapter II)

Travesía Cuatro CDMX, Mexico. 2023.

GRANADA GRANADA (Chapter II)

Travesía Cuatro CDMX, Mexico. 2023.

The Great Ruins of Saturn

Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York, United States. Dec 4, 2021 – Feb 26, 2022.

The Great Ruins of Saturn

Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York, United States. Dec 4, 2021 – Feb 26, 2022.

The Great Ruins of Saturn

Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York, United States. Dec 4, 2021 – Feb 26, 2022.

The Great Ruins of Saturn

Storefront for Art and Architecture, New York, United States. Dec 4, 2021 – Feb 26, 2022.

L'Invitation au voyage

Travesía Cuatro Madrid, 09 Sep – 20 Nov 2021.

L'Invitation au voyage

Travesía Cuatro Madrid, 09 Sep – 20 Nov 2021.

L'Invitation au voyage

Travesía Cuatro Madrid, 09 Sep – 20 Nov 2021.

L'Invitation au voyage

Travesía Cuatro Madrid, 09 Sep – 20 Nov 2021.

Jardín Satélite, Hotel Gazmira

TEA Tenerife Space of Arts, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain, July 2, 2021 – September 26, 2021.

Forget Me Not (with Petrit Halilaj)

Autostrada Biennale, The National Library of Kosovo “Pjetër Bogdani”, Prishtina, Kosovo, 2021.

Forget Me Not (with Petrit Halilaj)

Autostrada Biennale, The National Library of Kosovo “Pjetër Bogdani”, Prishtina, Kosovo, 2021.

17th Art Quadriennale di Roma (with Petrit Halilaj)

Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy, October 30, 2020 – July 18, 2021.

17th Art Quadriennale di Roma (with Petrit Halilaj)

Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy, October 30, 2020 – July 18, 2021.

17th Art Quadriennale di Roma (with Petrit Halilaj)

Palazzo delle Esposizioni, Rome, Italy, October 30, 2020 – July 18, 2021.

Biennale Gherdëina 7 (with Petrit Halilaj)

Curated by Adam Budak, Ortisei, South Tyrol, Italy, 2020

Biennale Gherdëina 7 (with Petrit Halilaj)

Curated by Adam Budak, Ortisei, South Tyrol, Italy, 2020

El Despertar [The Awakening]

La Casa Encendida, Madrid, curated by José Esparza Chong Cuy.
28 February 2020 – 10 January 2021

El Despertar [The Awakening]

La Casa Encendida, Madrid, curated by José Esparza Chong Cuy.
28 February 2020 – 10 January 2021

El Despertar [The Awakening]

La Casa Encendida, Madrid, curated by José Esparza Chong Cuy.
28 February 2020 – 10 January 2021

El Despertar [The Awakening]

La Casa Encendida, Madrid, curated by José Esparza Chong Cuy.
28 February 2020 – 10 January 2021

El Despertar [The Awakening]

La Casa Encendida, Madrid, curated by José Esparza Chong Cuy.
28 February 2020 – 10 January 2021

Wilshire & Cochran (with Petrit Halilaj), 2017

Two raccoon costumes, various trash objects, fabric Dimensions variable

Hands as Drawers

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

Hands as Drawers

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

Hands as Drawers

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

Ever Since Night Falls

Art Basel Statements with ChertLüdde, 2019

Ever Since Night Falls

Art Basel Statements with ChertLüdde, 2019

Ever Since Night Falls

Art Basel Statements with ChertLüdde, 2019

Tomorrow is so Far (video still)

Presented by Storefront for Art and Architecture, August 2020

Tomorrow is so Far

The Playground Project – Outdoor Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, 2018

Tomorrow is so Far

The Playground Project – Outdoor Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, 2018

He would always leave a window open, even at night

Part of “Welcome to the Jungle”, Kunsthalle Düsseldorf, 2018

He Would Always Leave A Window Open Even At Night

Part of “That Time”, Cycle Music and Art Festival. Curated by Eva Wilson Kópavogur, Iceland, 2016

Corridor, Altbau

Solo show, ChertLüdde, Berlin, 2017

Altbau

Solo show, ChertLüdde, Berlin, 2017

Altbau

Solo show, ChertLüdde, Berlin, 2017

Altbau

Solo show, ChertLüdde, Berlin, 2017

Almost Midnight

Solo show, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, 2017

Almost Midnight

Solo show, Frankfurt am Main, Berlin, 2017

Almost Midnight
Welcome not welcome

Festival of Future Nows – 2nd Edition, Hamburger Bahnhof Museum für Gegenwart, 2017

Fonctions et Fictions

Villa Empain, Boghossian Foundation, Brussels, 2016

Fonctions et Fictions

Villa Empain, Boghossian Foundation, Brussels, 2016

Dead Men Tell No Tales

Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, 2016

Dead Men Tell No Tales

Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, 2016

Dead Men Tell No Tales

Kölnischer Kunstverein, Cologne, 2016

Skin & Bones

Festival of Future Nows – 1st Edition, Neue Nationalgalerie, 2014

Skin & Bones

Festival of Future Nows – 1st Edition, Neue Nationalgalerie, 2014

I

Mole Antonelliana, National Cinema Museum of Turin, curated by Treti Galaxie, 2016

I

Mole Antonelliana, National Cinema Museum of Turin, curated by Treti Galaxie, 2016

My Boy, with Such Boots we may Hope to Travel Far

Art & Nature. Walking with Senses, curated by BAU (Simone Mair, Lisa Mazza, Filipa Ramos), Merano – Dorf Tirol, Italy, 2016

My Boy, with Such Boots we may Hope to Travel Far

Art & Nature. Walking with Senses, curated by BAU (Simone Mair, Lisa Mazza, Filipa Ramos), Merano – Dorf Tirol, Italy, 2016

My Boy, with Such Boots we may Hope to Travel Far

Art & Nature. Walking with Senses, curated by BAU (Simone Mair, Lisa Mazza, Filipa Ramos), Merano – Dorf Tirol, Italy, 2016

What Comes First (with Petrit Halilaj)

W.L.G.T.D.W.I (What’s Love Gotta Do With It), Group Exhibition, S.A.L.T.S., Basel, 2015

What Comes First (with Petrit Halilaj)

W.L.G.T.D.W.I (What’s Love Gotta Do With It), Group Exhibition, S.A.L.T.S., Basel, 2015

What Comes First (with Petrit Halilaj)

W.L.G.T.D.W.I (What’s Love Gotta Do With It), Group Exhibition, S.A.L.T.S., Basel, 2015

What Comes First (with Petrit Halilaj)

W.L.G.T.D.W.I (What’s Love Gotta Do With It), Group Exhibition, S.A.L.T.S., Basel, 2015

What Comes First (with Petrit Halilaj)

W.L.G.T.D.W.I (What’s Love Gotta Do With It), Group Exhibition, S.A.L.T.S., Basel, 2015

For the Birds (with Petrit Halilaj)

Villa Romana, Florence, 2013 & Ärger im Paradise (Trouble in Paradise), Group Exhibition curated by Rein Wolfs, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, 2015

For the Birds (with Petrit Halilaj)

Villa Romana, Florence, 2013 & Ärger im Paradise (Trouble in Paradise), Group Exhibition curated by Rein Wolfs, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, 2015

For the Birds (with Petrit Halilaj)

Villa Romana, Florence, 2013 & Ärger im Paradise (Trouble in Paradise), Group Exhibition curated by Rein Wolfs, Bundeskunsthalle, Bonn, 2015

The Ghost & The Host (video)

Pavillon Social Kunstverein in Lucca, 2014/2015

The Ghost & The Host (video still)

Pavillon Social Kunstverein in Lucca, 2014/2015

The Ghost & The Host (video)

Pavillon Social Kunstverein in Lucca, 2014/2015

Osservatorio

Garden of Villa Romana, Florence, 2014

Osservatorio

Garden of Villa Romana, Florence, 2014

Utopias are for Birds / Leonidov (Lenin Institute 1927)

Installation at Chert Gallery, 2015

Utopias are for Birds / Superstudio (Continuous Monument, 1969)

Glassauge, Berlin.

Utopias are for Birds / Archigram (Plug-in-City 1964)

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 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 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.

Upcoming projects include a solo show SculptureCenter, New York, US (2024). Collaborative exhibitions with Petrit Halilaj will take place in Guggenheim, Bilbao, SP (2023); Sydney Biennial, Sydney, AU (2024).

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.