Oscar Murillo

MARCO announces its next exhibition, Espíritus en el pantano, the first museum show of artist Oscar Murillo in Mexico.

Oscar Murillo’s practice spans painting, collaborative projects, video, sound and installation. Taken as a whole, his work demonstrates a perpetual curiosity into notions of global social and economic exchange, community, and collaboration.

Murillo is considered one of the most relevant artists globally. In 2019, he was one of four artists to be collectively awarded the prestigious Turner Prize, one of the most important accolades in contemporary art.

Through interactive painting, video work and installation pieces, the artist Oscar Murillo conceives of the spaces within MARCO as a social arena in his survey Espíritus en el pantano (Spirits in the Swamp), demonstrating a commitment to the power of material presence and the importance of collectivity and shared culture.

According to Taiyana Pimentel, director of MARCO and curator of the show, the artist revisits the pictorial tradition, drawing on different languages examined from the point of view of avant-garde movements such as Impressionism, Neo-Expressionism, and body language. However, Murillo often reverses the tradition in which the artist is the sole creative agent by inviting communities from around the world to participate, turning the act of art making into a vehicle of dialogue and gathering, rooted in participation.

— MARCO