gabriel kuri
1970, Mexico City
Gabriel Kuri focuses on objects and spaces that mediate human relationships to explore the untapped potential for transformation in the everyday. Engaging the principles of minimalism and capitalist consumption, he integrates elements of the familiar his collages and sculptures. Residues of human interactions—plastic bags, advertising flyers, receipts and tickets—are brought together through unexpected encounters with stones, coins and cigarette butts, as well as industrial materials, such as cement, brushed steel and insulation rolls. Often accompanied by idioms and vernacular phrases, his pieces invite a multilayered dialogue between the verbal and the visual. Kuri questions the given tenets of contemporary culture through poetic juxtapositions and hybrid objects that rethink the mundane and present the eloquence and extraordinary in daily life.
From 1987 to 1991, Kuri attended Gabriel Orozco’s workshop Taller de los viernes together with Abraham Cruzvillegas, Damián Ortega and Dr. Lakra. In 1992, he received a BA in Visual Arts from Escuela Nacional de Artes Plásticas (UNAM) in Mexico City, and completed his MFA at Goldsmiths, University of London, in 1995. He was artist in residence at the Office for Contemporary Art Norway (2007), Govett-Brewster Art Gallery, New Zealand (2006), and the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Florida (2002). Kuri was selected for an Artist Commission at The Armory Show in 2011 and shortlisted for the BelgianArtPrize 2019.
Gabriel Kuri lives and works in Brussels, Belgium.
Untitled, 2025
Wooden panel, steel sheet, printed tyvek, rocks
166 x 150 x 2 cm (65 3/8 x 59 x 3/4 in)
M.08, 2024
Permanent ink on gesso primed canvas
59.2 x 42.5 x 2 cm
preemptive forms, 2023
Powder coated steel, rocks
Installed: 153 x 455 x 90 cm
gain payé, 2023
Hand woven wool gobelin
267 x 158.5 x 6 cm
Encubrimiento estadístico, 2021
Wood, acrylic, tobacco, paper, PET, sponge, cardboard, found objects, mixed media on orange carpet (35 elements)
Installed: 200 x 717.5 x 30 cm
a taxonomy of chance, 2019
Mixed media in magnetic stainless steel vitrine with light
150 x 100 x 6.5 cm
Untitled, 2017
Game boards and concrete
233 x 196 cm
Compromised Vertical Growth, 2015
Pyramidal stone atop stack of insulation materials
73 x 50.5 x 52 cm
Left of center and right of center alternatives, top to bottom and bottom to top, 2014
Volcanic rock, metallic bin, spray painted acrylic, mixed media and wood, painted fiberglass and resin, concrete
100 x 187 x 50 cm
untitled (doy fe), 1998
cast fiberglass, enamel painted, steel, glass vitrine, lightbulb
55.12 x 55.12 x 39.37 in.
tree with chewing gum, 1999
digital print
51.18 x 34.25 in.
carretilla II, 1999
wheelbarrow, glass spheres
21.65 x 55.12 x 25.98 in.
untitled (trinity), 2004
three working refrigerators, three hovering shopping bags
74.8 x 125.98 x 23.62 in.
quick standards, 2005
set of 3 emergency blanket taped on wooden sticks
variable dimensions
untitled (canoe), 2006
two marble plates, one aluminum can
39.37 x 15.75 x 3.15 in.
complimentary cornice and intervals, 2010
six marble slabs, courtesy cosmetics
56.69 x 92.52 x 1.18 in.
untitled (window and sales tickets), 2004
anti-pidgeon spikes on window ledges, sales tickets and receipts
variable dimensions
waiting stub lettuce, 2004
plastic lettuce, waiting (turn) stubs
variable dimensions
untitled (cohete despegando), 2007
consumption tickets, postcard and screenprint on paper
17.32 x 11.81 in.
untitled (world of ink), 2013
hand woven wool gobelin
155.12 x 58.66 in.
untitled (el país (all except red)), 2005
adhesive labels (peeled off fruit and other perishables and products) on newspaper
16.34 x 11.42 in.
untitled (aviones en círculo), 2006
turn stubs on vintage magazine page
12.2 x 15.55 in.
untitled ("a 84"), 2007
turn stubs on vintage magazine page
12.99 x 10.51 in.
ejercicio 2005-2006 (VI), 2006
till receipts, sales tickets, vouchers, rocks, plywood plinth
17.72 x 11.81 in.
that runs through, 2009
bag of charcoal, stone, stack of financial times; archival box, newspaper, kitty litter, bag of kitty litter; wastebasket, mophead, backdrop paper.
140 x 88 x 54 in.
items in care of items II, 2008
painted steel, numbered magnetic discs, assorted items
variable dimensions
untitled 100%, 2011
painted metal (four parts)
155.12 x 52.76 x 53.35 in.
shelter, 2011
marble slabs, cans, wood, paint, clothes, metal guardrails, fabric
variable dimensions
self portrait as chart with two point convergence, 2012
insulating material, string, two crushed aluminium drink cans
38.98 x 39.37 x 15.75 in.
blind photocopier, 2012
photocopier covered with impermeable membrane, asphalt plastic cement
44.09 x 40.16 x 27.95 in.
flat hole, 2012
digital print on fabric
157.48 x 236.22 in.
inverted lightbox 2, 2012
lightbox, stainless steel, plexiglass, papers, tickets, turn stubs, plastic bags
47.44 x 71.14 x 7.48 in.
bottled water e.d.e. 5, 2013
stones, condoms, paper
variable dimensions
bottled water e.d.e. 1, 2013
stone, metal plate, paper
variable dimensions
bottled water e.d.e. 2, 2013
bottles, mixture of alcohol, base, paper
variable dimensions
untitled polling table, 2014
collapsible tables, painted metal dividers, donated toiletries, linen
variable dimensions
Past solo exhibitions include: Particules Préemptives, Esther Shipper, Paris (2023); Gabriel Kuri, Aranya Art Center, Beidaihe, China (2023); Gabriel Kuri: Pronóstico, Museo Jumex, Mexico City (2023); Gabriel Kuri: Motion in Acceptance of An Impending Crash, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2022); Gabriel Kuri: Threshold into Deficit (the void after Fontana), Galleria Franco Noero, Turin, Italy (2021); Spending Static to Save Gas, Douglas Hyde Gallery, Glasgow, United Kingdom (2020) and Oakville Gallery, Canada (2018); Gabriel Kuri, Walter Storms Galerie, Munich, Germany (2020); Gabriel Kuri: Sorted, Resorted, Wiels Contemporary Arts Center, Brussels, Belgium (2019); Afterthought is Never Binary, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2017); Product Testing Unit, Alte Fabrik, Rapperswil-Jona, Switzerland (2016); Gabriel Kuri: with personal thanks to their contractual thingness, Aspen Art Museum, Colorado (2015); All probability resolves into form, The Common Guild, Glasgow, United Kingdom (2014); bottled water branded water, Parc Saint Léger, Centre d’art contemporain, Pougues-les-Eaux, France (2013); Gabriel Kuri, Bergen Kunsthall, Norway (2012); Nobody Needs to Know the Price of Your Saab, The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA Boston), Massachusetts (2011) and Blaffer Art Museum University of Houston, Texas (2010); Soft Information in your Hard Facts, Museion – museo d’arte moderna e contemporanea di Bolzano, Italy (2010); Join the Dots and Make a Point, Bielefelder Kunstverein, Germany (2010); Model for a Victory Parade, Sadie Coles HQ, London (2008), among others.
Past group exhibitions include: That Which Binds Us, Buffalo AKG Art Museum, New York (2024); The campus, Claverack, New York (2024); Un Inventario Insólito: Diálogos con el Surrealismo, kurimanzutto, Mexico City (2024); Colección Jumex: Todo se vuelve más ligero, Museo Jumex, Mexico City (2023); Copy Machine Manifestos: Artists Who Make Zines, Brooklyn Museum, New York (2023); Chosen Memories, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2023); Switch. Pop, Points and Politics From The Ludwig Collection, Ludwig Forum Aachen, Germany (2023); El tiempo en las cosas II. Salas de Arte Contemporáneo, Puebla, Mexico (2022); TODOS JUNTOS (All together), kurimanzutto, New York (2022); KOLÉ SÉRÉ, BRAUNSFELDER, Cologne, Germany (2021); INFORMATION (Today), Kunsthalle Basel, Switzerland (2021); Excepciones normales: Arte contemporáneo en México, Museo Jumex, Mexico City (2021); Siembra, kurimanzutto, Mexico City (2020); Converter, Kunstmuseum St. Gallen, Switzerland (2018); ISelf Collection: The Upset Bucket, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2017–18); Living Apart Together: Recent Acquisitions, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2017); L'Esprit du Bauhaus, Musée des Arts Décoratifs, Paris (2016); The Distance of a Day, The Israel Museum, Jerusalem (2016); Strange Currencies: Art & Action in Mexico City, 1990–2000, The Galleries at Moore, Moore College of Art & Design, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania (2015); Made in L.A. Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2014); México Inside Out: Themes in Art Since 1990, The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Texas (2013); The Living Years: Art after 1989, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota (2012); Pour un art pauvre (inventaire du monde et de l’atelier), Carré d'Art - Musée d'art contemporain de Nîmes, France (2011); Keep it Real, Whitechapel Gallery, London (2010); All That Is Solid Melts into Air, Museum of Contemporary Art Antwerp (M HKA), Belgium (2009); Unmonumental, New Museum, New York (2007), among others.
His work has been exhibited in various biennials, including: 32nd and 31st Ljubljana Biennial of Graphic Arts, Slovenia (2015 and 2017); Desert X, Coachella Valley, California (2017); 12 Bienal de la Habana (2015); 50th and 54th International Art Exhibition at the Venice Biennial (2011 and 2003); 5 Berlin Biennale (2008), among others.
kurimanzutto is proud to announce the group exhibition: Normal Exceptions: Contemporary Art in Mexico in Museo Jumex in which Abraham Cruzvillegas, Daniel Guzmán, Damián Ortega, Eduardo Abaroa, Gabriel Kuri, Gabriel Orozco, Iñaki Bonillas, and Miguel Calderón participate.
Gabriel Kuri presents chinese whispers, a collection of airline blankets with adhesive fruit labels, in the group show gerlach en koop was machen Sie um zwei? Ich sclafe at GAK Bremen.
On the Razor’s Edge is an international exhibition that brings together works within four thematic sections: migration and liberty; the human body; its environment; and the irrepressible and forever incomplete passage of time.
For his first solo exhibition in Ireland, Kuri presents a new site-specific installation that recasts the cavernous architecture of the Douglas Hyde Gallery, creating a static field to reduce the building's energy use during the run of the exhibition.
Listen to the playlist La música el Japón by Gabriel Kuri on Spotify.
Listen to Gabriel Kuri's Spotify playlist de aquí para allá, sin ir más lejos.
Listen to the playlist ritmo roto rito moro riro moto by Gabriel Kuri on Spotify.
Listen to the playlist Juan Gabriel Kuri on Spotify by Gabriel Kuri.
This exhibition adopts materials as its organizing principle, sorting his works into four categories: paper, plastic, metal, and construction materials.
SI ONSITE is a series of commissioned and borrowed semi-permanent works and installations exhibited in non-gallery spaces of the building. In the reception area, reading room, stairways, hallways, roof, elevator and other interstitial spaces.
Encompassing work in sculpture, collage, installation and other media, Mexican-born, Brussels-based artist Gabriel Kuri frequently uses repurposed materials—natural, industrial and otherwise—to link questions of form with larger conversations surrounding how commodities are valued, circulated and assigned function. Inspired as readily by the principles of minimalism as by material histories, Kuri's works highlight the contingent and vernacular life of a given material or object alongside its more rational or systematic utility.
