biography
Alejandro Cesarco was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1975. Lives and works in New York.
In the past two decades Alejandro Cesarco has been making art as well as publishing books and curating exhibitions. Using film, photography and text, Cesarco’s practice investigates the agency of meaning, and how the expression of that agency is embedded within the practices of writing and reading, translating and misreading, repeating and remembering. The formal strategies of Cesarco’s (isolating a footnote from its context, the ongoing compilation of indexes for an as-yet unwritten book, a video who’s narrative structure is based on secrecy, for example) are often marked by an emotional register, where affect colludes with language to produce a series of metanarratives in dialogue with the histories of Conceptual Art. In addition to his studio practice, the artist has curated several exhibitions and is director of Art Resources Transfer (A.R.T.), a nonprofit organization that publishes books by artists and distributes free books on art to public schools, libraries and prisons.
Alejandro Cesarco was born in Montevideo, Uruguay, in 1975. Lives and works in New York.
In the past two decades Alejandro Cesarco has been making art as well as publishing books and curating exhibitions. Using film, photography and text, Cesarco’s practice investigates the agency of meaning, and how the expression of that agency is embedded within the practices of writing and reading, translating and misreading, repeating and remembering. The formal strategies of Cesarco’s (isolating a footnote from its context, the ongoing compilation of indexes for an as-yet unwritten book, a video who’s narrative structure is based on secrecy, for example) are often marked by an emotional register, where affect colludes with language to produce a series of metanarratives in dialogue with the histories of Conceptual Art. In addition to his studio practice, the artist has curated several exhibitions and is director of Art Resources Transfer (A.R.T.), a nonprofit organization that publishes books by artists and distributes free books on art to public schools, libraries and prisons.
Recent solo exhibitions include: The Ongoing Story, Galleria Raffaella Cortese, Milan (2022); Todo en negro, los ojos cerrados por el exceso del desastre, Fotogalería Teatro San Martín, Buenos Aires (2021); Alejandro Cesarco, a solo exhibition, Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (2019); Aprendiendo el Lenguaje, Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico (2019); Tactics & Techniques, Contemporary Art Center, Vilnius (2019); Alejandro Cesarco. Apprendre la langue (présent continu I), Jeu de Paume, Paris and CAPC musée d’art contemporain de Bordeaux, Bordeaux (2019); Song, The Renaissance Society, Chicago (2017); The Inner Shadow, A Tale of a Tub, Rotterdam (2016); Prescribe the Symptom, Midway Contemporary Art, Minneapolis (2015); Secondary Revision, Frac Île-de-France /Le Plateau, Paris (2013); A Portrait, a Story, and an Ending, Kunsthalle Zürich, Zürich (2013); Alejandro Cesarco, mumok, Vienna (2012); A Common Ground, Uruguayan Pavilion, 54th Venice Biennial (2011); One without the Other, Museo Rufino Tamayo, Mexico City (2011); and Present Memory, Tate Modern, London (2010).
Group exhibitions include: INFORMATION (Today), Kunsthalle Basel, Basel, Switzerland (2022) Travelled to: Astrup Fearnley Museum, Oslo; Affective Affinities, 33rd Bienal de São Paulo (2018); Under the Same Sun: Art from Latin America Today, Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City (2017); Question the Wall Itself, Walker Art Center, Minneapolis (2016); Under the Same Sun, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2014); Tell It to My Heart: Collected by Julie Ault, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Basel (2013); and The Imminence of Poetics, 30th Bienal de São Paulo (2012).
Recent curatorial projects include: It’s Just a Matter of Time, with Manuel Segade, ARCOmadrid, IFEMA, Madrid (2020); Viewing Room. A charted journey through the contemporary art collection of the Colección Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, SculptureCenter, Long Island City, NY (2015); Between Artists, ongoing series of pocket sized, conversation based books published by A.R.T. Press, New York.
gallery exhibitions
images
Untitled (Speaking in Tongues), 2022
3 archival ink-jet prints
102 × 71 cm each
Untitled (Speaking in Tongues), 2022 (detail)
Untitled (Speaking in Tongues), 2022 (detail)
Untitled (Speaking in Tongues), 2022 (detail)
Figure with Shadow (Stage I), 2022
Archival ink-jet print
90 × 60 cm
Figure with Shadow (Stage II), 2022
Archival ink-jet print
90 × 60 cm
Figure with Shadow (Stage III), 2022
Archival ink-jet print
90 × 60 cm
Down & Across (I), 2020
Archival ink-jet print
119,5 × 82,5 cm
Down & Across (II), 2020
Archival ink-jet print
119,5 × 82,5 cm
Playing the Standards (As if it Were Adrian Piper), 2020
Archival ink-jet print
26 × 35 cm; 34,7 × 42,5 × 3,8 cm framed
Playing the Standards (As if it Were Cy Twombly), 2020
Archival ink-jet print
26 × 35 cm; 34,7 × 42,5 × 3,8 cm framed
Playing the Standards (As if it Were Isa Genzken), 2020
Archival ink-jet print
26 × 35 cm; 34,7 × 42,5 × 3,8 cm framed
The Long Term (A Measure of Intimacy I), 2020
Archival ink-jet print
142 × 55 cm
The Long Term (A Measure of Intimacy II), 2020
Archival ink-jet print
142 × 55 cm
The Long Term (A Measure of Intimacy IV), 2020
Archival ink-jet print
142 × 55 cm
Long Casting (A Page on Regret), 2019
Archival ink-jet print
83 × 57 cm
New York Public Library Picture Collection (Subject Headings - Cross References), 2018
4 archival ink-jet prints
76,2 × 54,6 cm each
New York Public Library Picture Collection (Subject Headings - Cross References), 2018
4 archival ink-jet prints
76,2 × 54,6 cm each
New York Public Library Picture Collection (Subject Headings - Cross References), 2018
4 archival ink-jet prints
76,2 × 54,6 cm each
New York Public Library Picture Collection (Subject Headings - Cross References), 2018
4 archival ink-jet prints
76,2 × 54,6 cm each
Margarita's Music Book (Spes Vitae), 2018
Archival ink-jet print
95 × 119 cm
Learning the Language (Present Continuous I), 2018
Video, color, sound
18' 25"
Der Familienroman (The Family Novel), 2017
Framed archival ink-jet print
102 × 134 cm
A Portrait of Sherrie Levine, 2017
Two framed archival ink-jet prints
76 × 56 cm (each)
Interlude, 2017
8mm film transferred to digital, color, sound
2'
The Inner Shadow, 2016
8mm film transferred to digital, color, sound
6'
Allegory or The Perils of The Present Tense, 2015
16mm film transferred to digital, colour, silent
10' 21"
Mirrored Portrait, 2015
16mm film transferred to digital, color, silent
3' 50"
Musings, 2013
16mm black and white film transferred to video, sound
15' 30''
Picture #11, 2013
Archival inkjet print
37 × 50,4 cm; 40,2 × 53,6 × 3 cm framed
Picture #25, 2013
Archival inkjet print
40,4 × 50,4 cm; 42,4 x 52,4 cm framed
Where I'm Calling From, 2012
4 archival inkjet prints
76,2 × 101,6 cm (each)
Present Memory, 2010
HD video and 16mm film transferred to video, color, sound
9' 40"
Zeide Isaac, 2010
HD video with sound
6'
public exhibitions
Astrup Fearnley Museum
Oslo
INFORMATION (Today)
4.2 – 24.4.2022
Photo: Christian Øen
Teatro San Martín
Buenos Aires
Todo en negro, los ojos cerrados por el exceso del desastre
9.11.2021 – 27.2.2022
Photo: Bruno Dubner
Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art
Rotterdam
Alejandro Cesarco, a solo exhibition
8.9.2019 – 5.1.2020
Witte de With Center for Contemporary Art
Rotterdam
Alejandro Cesarco, a solo exhibition
8.9.2019 – 5.1.2020
Contemporary Art Centre
Vilnius
Alejandro Cesarco: Tactics & Techniques
8.2 – 31.3.2019
Photo: CAC/Andrej Vasilenko
Contemporary Art Centre
Vilnius
Alejandro Cesarco: Tactics & Techniques
8.2 – 31.3.2019
Photo: CAC/Andrej Vasilenko
Contemporary Art Centre
Vilnius
Alejandro Cesarco: Tactics & Techniques
8.2 – 31.3.2019
Photo: CAC/Andrej Vasilenko
SculptureCenter
Jackson Avenue, intersection Queens Plaza
Long Island City
Words Like Love: Alphaville, First Scenes
3.6 – 2.7.2017
SculptureCenter
Jackson Avenue, intersection Queens Plaza
Long Island City
Words Like Love: Alphaville, First Scenes
3.6 – 2.7.2017
The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago
Chicago
Song
18.11.2017 – 28.1.2018
Photo: Useful Art Services
The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago
Chicago
Song
18.11.2017 – 28.1.2018
Photo: Useful Art Services
The Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago
Chicago
Song
18.11.2017 – 28.1.2018
Photo: Useful Art Services
mumok
Vienna
Alejandro Cesarco
22.9.2012 – 10.2.2013
Foto © mumok - Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien
mumok
Vienna
Alejandro Cesarco
22.9.2012 – 10.2.2013
Foto © mumok - Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien
press
Interviews: Alejandro Cesarco
Alejandro Cesarco discusses his show at the Renaissance Society
Artforum
November 28, 2017
publications
Apprendre la langue (present continu i)
Jeu de Paume
Paris
2018
Alejandro Cesarco: Song
Renaissance Society
Chicago
2017
Alejandro Cesarco
Hatje Cantz
Berlin
2012
Alejandro Cesarco: Marguerite Duras' India Song
Art in General
Brooklyn
2007
video
Artist talk: Alejandro Cesarco
2017
Artist Alejandro Cesarco discusses his Renaissance Society exhibition, Song (Nov 18, 2017-Jan 28, 2018), in conversation with curator Solveig Øvstebø at the opening reception on Nov 18, 2017.
John Baldessari and Alejandro Cesarco
2006-2007
Rolex Mentor and Protégé in Visual Arts
