Achievement Award

Horacio Zabala was born in Buenos Aires in 1943. He received a degree in architecture from the University of Buenos Aires (UBA).

Zabala immigrated to Europe in 1976, where he lived in Rome, Vienna and then Geneva for a total of 22 years. He currently lives and works in Buenos Aires.

He had his first solo exhibition in 1967, and he published his first theoretical text in 1972. From that year until 1976, he was a member of the Grupo de los trece.

“The raw material to think and do my works arises from the search and discovery of relationships between things, with the aim of diverting them or revealing them in another way. Combinations of elements and their possible mixtures appear, but they are not technical or formal procedures. I consider them deployments, inaugural experiences that can lead to hidden correspondences between things, forms, concepts and materials. I am stimulated by the links between the same and different.

 Through my artistic practice I try (I intend) to see and show the possible relationships between the real, the symbolic and the imaginary. Art makes sense if it transforms the sense. The work of art has meaning if it transforms the meaning." - Horacio Zabala.

Horacio Zabala's work is in the collections of the National Museum of Fine Arts of Argentina; The Museum of Contemporary Art, Brazil; Tate Modern, London, England; The University of Iowa Museum of Art, Iowa, USA; The Buenos Aires Museum of Modern Art, Argentina; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain; among others.

Photo courtesy of the artist.

A Look Inside:

Born │ 
Buenos Aires, Argentina, 1943. Lives and Works in Buenos Aires.

Education │

University of Buenos Aires (UBA), Bs.As, Argentina.

Awards│

In 1975, as part of the Grupo de los 13, he received the PEACE '75 prize on the 30th anniversary of the United Nations, in Slovenj Gradec, ex-Yugoslavia. In 2004, he was awarded the Acquisition Prize from the LVIII Salón Nacional de Rosario, and in 2005 the Grand Acquisition Prize from the Salón Nacional de Artes Visuales in the area of new supports and installations.

Selected Exhibitions │

SOLO EXHIBITIONS

“Isolations”, Henrique Faria Fine Art. New York, USA (2017). | “La pureza está en la mezcla”, Amalia Lacroze de Fortabat Art Collection. Buenos Aires, Argentina (2016) | “Mapping the Monochrome”, Phoenix Art Museum. Phoenix, USA (2016) | “Entre líneas”, Henrique Faria Art Gallery. Buenos Aires, Argentina (2016) | “Espacio entre paréntesis”, Buenos Aires City, Public Space: Florida Street and Avenida Córdoba. Buenos Aires, Argentina (2015) | “Spaces of Repression and Liberation”, Henrique Faria Fine Art. New York, USA (2014) | “Horacio Zabala desde 1972”, MUNTREF (Museo de la Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero). Caseros, Argentina (2013) | “(Hipótesis)”, 11 x 7 Gallery. Buenos Aires, Argentina (2013) | “Obras en Tránsito. Instalaciones & objetos”, Nave Cultural, UNCUYO (National University of Cuyo). Mendoza, Argentina (2013).

GROUP EXHIBITIONS

“Memories of Underdevelopment”, Museum of Contemporary Art. San Diego, USA (2017); Museo Jumex. Mexico City, Mexico (2018) and Lima Art Museum. Lima, Peru (2018) | “Alternate Habitats”, Cirrus Gallery. Los Angeles, USA (2017) | “Sublevaciones”, Centro de Arte Contemporáneo – MUNTREF (Museo de la Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero). Buenos Aires, Argentina (2017) | “Fronteras”, Henrique Faría Art Gallery. Buenos Aires, Argentina (2017) | “Hábitat”, Henrique Faria-Buenos Aires Art Gallery. Buenos Aires, Argentina (2016) | “Borges, ficciones de un tiempo infinito”, CCK–Artes visuales. Buenos Aires, Argentina (2016) | “Toda Percepción es Interpretación: You are Part of it”, Cisneros-Fontanals Art Collection, CIFO Art Space. Miami, USA (2016) | “Artevida”, Museum of Modern Art. Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2015) | “Art from Elsewhere”, Gallery of Modern Art. Glasgow, Scotland (2015) |“It Might Be Possible That the World Is Without Meaning – Performances, Actions and Interventions in Urban Space”, Stadtkuratorin-Hamburg. Hamburg, Germany (2015) | “Imagining Space: Constructions of Text and Geometry”, Rhona Hoffman Gallery. Chicago, USA (2015) | “Resistance Performed – Aesthetic Strategies under Repressive Regimes in Latin America”, Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst. Zürich, Switzerland (2015) | “Vizinhos distantes – Art from América Latina at Museum of Contemporary Art, University of São Paulo. Sâo Paulo, Brazil (2015). “X Bienal del Mercosur”, MARGS (Rio Grande do Sul Museum of Art). Porto Alegre, Brazil (2015) | “Permission To Be Global – Latin American Art”, Cisneros- Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami y Museum of Fine Arts. Boston, USA (2014) | “Los vencedores y los vencidos”, The Buenos Aires Museum of Modern Art. Buenos Aires, Argentina (2014) |“La Protesta – Arte y Politica en la Argentina”, Instituto Cultural Cabañas. Guadalajara, Mexico (2014) | “Dirty Geormetry”, Mana. Miami, USA (2014) | “Cromofobia”, MACBA (Museum of Contemporary Art in Buenos Aires). Buenos Aires, Argentina (2014) | “Conceptual Geographies: “Frames and Documents”, Miriam and Ira Walach Art Gallery, Columbia University. New York, USA (2013) | “Geometrías: desvíos y desmesuras. Arte geométrico contemporáneo”, Fundación OSDE. Buenos Aires, Argentina (2013) | “Open Work in Latin America, New York & Beyond”, The Berta and Karl Leubsdorf Art Gallery. New York, USA (2013) .