While his work is in the collections of MoMA and Tate Modern, Mexican conceptual artist Abraham Cruzvillegas is having his first major presentation at a museum at the Walker Art Center this spring. Haunted or inspired by the surroundings of his childhood home in Mexico City, Cruzvillegas displays “improvised” sculptures made of found objects and materials including wool, sheep shit, chicken wire, cardboard and hair. Approximately 35 of his installations will be on view at the Walker, March 23-September 22, 2013.
Born in 1968, Cruzvillegas was considered part of a movement in Latin American art in the mid-1990s which has been compared to the UK’s YBAs in the 1980s. While he hasn’t come near the success of YBA Damien Hirst, he’s getting closer. Cruzvillegas was awarded the 2012 Korea’s Yanghyun Prize which awards 100 million Korean won (or US$88,000) to one international contemporary artist each year. The award was established in honor of arts patron Cho Sho-ho, the late chairman of Hanjin Shipping. And Hanjin knows a thing or two about art; the company transported Michael Heizer’s giant boulder from a granite quarry to LACMA last year.