In the series “To Compound the Small Differences”, Gabriel Rico sources several photographs of deep space satellite imagery of the Cosmic Microwave Background (CMB), leftover primeval electromagnetic radiation from the Big Bang, taken by the Hubble telescope in 2004. This data serves as the basis for each tableau in which the artist creates new configurations of the original photographs. They are divided into quarters and then mixed together to suggest new universes and new possibilities. Rico is influenced by the Greek Atomist School, or Atomism, specifically by Democritus who believed in the configuration of reality by very small blocks they called atoms. As such, the artist uses his own “atoms” in the creation of these new realities with very small glass beads or spheres. The technique Rico uses in these pieces derives from the cultural practices of the Wixárika people in northern Jalisco used to represent their cosmology and deep spiritual beliefs. The Wixárikas, commonly known by their Spanish name Huicholes, are an ethnic group of Mexico people living in the Sierra Madre Occidental range in the states of Nayarit, Jalisco, Zacatecas, and Durango. Each piece in this series was hand-crafted by Wixarika community members Heriberto Castro Montoya (or Ttkitemai in the Wixárika language) and his wife Erica Bautista Bautista (or Kupuli). Through the subject and material, Rico seeks to create an environment in which Wixárikas can both tangibly and metaphorically create new universes through their own interpretation of the given photography, rooted in culturally meaningful artistic practice.
 

Gabriel Rico

Gabriel Rico was born in 1980 in Lagos de Moreno, Jalisco, Mexicao, and now lives and works in Guadalajara, Mexicao.

Describing himself as an “ontologist with a heuristic methodology,” Rico interrelates found objects and materials, reworking them to create sculptures that invite the viewer to reflect on the relationship between human beings and their natural environment. He sometimes uses neon, ceramics, taxidermy mounts, branches of trees, and even more personal objects from his own past to create an equation or formulation, achieving a precise geometry in spite of the unwieldy organic nature of his materials. His installations combine natural and anti-natural forms, handled poetically and ironically, with an insistence on the necessary contemplation of their asymmetry, as well as of our own cultural and political defects.

Rico has recently exhibited his work at museums and galleries around the world, including the Beiqiu Museum of Contemporary Art in Nanjing and Black Cube in Denver in 2022, the Institute of Contemporary Art in San Diego, Perrotin in New York, and the Galería OMR in Mexico City in 2021, and Perrotin in Paris in 2020. His work was included in the 58th Venice Biennale and is part of the Korean Ceramic Foundation (KOCEF), among others.
 

Lender: Galerie Perrotin