Carlos Motta
Carlos Motta was born in 1978 in Bogota
He lives and works in New York
Carlos Motta’s multi-disciplinary art practice documents the social conditions and political struggles of sexual, gender, and ethnic minority communities in order to challenge dominant and normative discourses through visibility and self-representation. As a historian of untold narratives and an archivist of repressed histories, Motta is committed to in-depth research on the struggles of post-colonial subjects and societies. His work manifests in a variety of mediums including video, installation, sculpture, drawing, web-based projects, performance, and symposia.
His work was the subject of survey exhibitions including Stigmata, MAMBO Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá (2023); Your Monsters, Our Idols, Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus (2022); Carlos Motta: Formas de libertad at the Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín, Colombia (2017) that traveled to Matucana 100, Santiago, Chile (2018) and Carlos Motta : For Democracy There Must Be Love, Röda Sten Konsthall, Gotheburg, Sweden (2015).
His solo exhibitions at international museums include We Got Each Other’s Back, PICA, Portland (2020); The Crossing, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2017); Histories for the Future, Pérez Art Museum (PAMM), Miami (2016); Réquiem, Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA) (2016); Patriots, Citizens, Lovers, PinchukArtCentre, Kiev (2015); Gender Talents, Tate Modern, London (2013); La forma de la libertad, Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros, Mexico (2013); We Who Feel Differently, New Museum, New York (2012); Brief History, MoMA/PS1, New York (2009); and The Good Life, Institute of Contemporary Art, Philadelphia (2008); among others.
Motta also participated in the 58th Carnegie International, USA (2022); the 11th Berlin Biennale (2020); Incerteza Viva, 32nd Bienal de São Paulo (2016); Burning Down the House, 10th Gwangju Biennale (2014); and Le spectacle du quotidien, Lyon Biennale (2010). His films have been screened at the Rotterdam Film Festival (2016, 2010); Toronto International Film Festival (2013); and Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur (2016); among many others.His work is in the permanent collection of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia, Madrid; Museo de Arte Contemporaneo de Barcelona; Museu Fundaçao Serralves, Porto; and Museo de Arte de Banco de la República, Bogotá; among many other institutional, corporate and private collections around the world.
Carlos Motta has been awarded the Vilcek Foundation’s Prize for Creative Promise (2017); the PinchukArtCentre’s Future Generation Art Prize (2014); and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2008).
A comprehensive monograph of his work, Carlos Motta : History’s Backrooms, was published by SKIRA in 2020.
Carlos Motta: Your Monsters, Our Idols - Exhibition view, Wexner Center, Columbus, Ohio, 2022
Carlos Motta: Your Monsters, Our Idols - Exhibition view, Wexner Center, Columbus, Ohio, 2022
Carlos Motta: Your Monsters, Our Idols - Exhibition view, Wexner Center, Columbus, Ohio, 2022
Carlos Motta: Your Monsters, Our Idols - Exhibition view, Wexner Center, Columbus, Ohio, 2022
Carlos Motta: Stigmata - Exhibition view, MAMBO, Bogota, 2023
When I Leave This World, 2022 - Digital film - Exhibition view, Carlos Motta: Stigmata, MAMBO, Bogotá, 2023
When I Leave This World, 2022 - OCDChinatown, New York, 2022
The Oceans and The Interpreters, Taipei, Taiwan, 2022
Réquiem, 2016 - Video installation - Exhibition view, 11th Berlin Biennale, 2020
Réquiem, 2016 - Video installation - Exhibition view, 11th Berlin Biennale, 2020
Corpo Fechado - Exhibition view, Galeria Avenida da India, Lisbon, 2018
Portrait of Jose Francisco Pedroso - Digital print
Portrait of Jose Francisco Pedroso - Digital print
L'oeuvre du Diable - Exhibition view, mor charpentier, Paris, 2018
Circle VII, 2018 - Laser engraving on basswood
L'oeuvre du Diable, 2018 - Series of paintings, blood and gesso on canvas
We Got Each Other's Back - Exhibition view, PICA, Portland, 2020
Soft Power - Exhibition view, SF MoMA, San Francisco, 2019
Patriots, Citizens, Lovers…, 2015 - Video Installation – Exhibition view, PinchukArtCentre, Kiev, 2015
The Crossing - Exhibition view, Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 2017
The Crossing, 2017 - Multichannel video installation, color, sound
Legacy, 2019 - Digital video, color, sound
We The Enemy, 2017 - Digital video, color, sound - In collaboration with SPIT!
The Spit! Manifesto, 2017
Beloved Martina - Exhibition view, Mercer Union, Toronto, 2016
Beloved Martina, 2016 - Series of 10 Sandstone 3D Prints – Installation view, Hordaland Kunstsener, Bergen, 2016
Beloved Martina, 2016 - Series of 10 Sandstone 3D Prints – Installation view, mor charpentier, Paris, 2016
Beloved Martina (Hermaphrodite #1), 2016 - Sandstone 3D print
The Psalms (Figure of a Man with an Elephant Head), 2017 - 3D print and spray paint
Carlos Motta, Formas de Libertad - Exhibition view, Museo de Arte Moderno, Medellin, 2017
Lágrimas, 2017 - Digital video – Exhibition view, Claustro San Agustin, Bogota, 2017
For Democracy There Must Be Love - Exhibition view, Röda Sten Konsthall, Gothenburg, 2015
Nefandus Trilogy, 2013 - Video installation - Exhibition view, Röda Sten Konstall, Gothenburg, 2015
Colonial Forts, 2013 - Digital print
Colonial Forts, 2013 - Digital print
Colonial Forts, 2013 - Digital print
Towards a Homoerotic Historiography, 2014 - Installation with golden figures - Exhibition view, PAMM, Miami, 2016
Towards a Homoerotic Historiography, 2014 - Installation with golden figures - Detail
Towards a Homoerotic Historiography, 2014 - Installation with golden figures - Detail
Towards a Homoerotic Historiography, 2014 - Watercolor
Towards a Homoerotic Historiography, 2014 - Watercolor
Towards a Homoerotic Historiography, 2014 - Watercolor
When, if ever, does one draw a line...?, 2019 - Series of 11 silkscreens - Exhibition view, mor charpentier, Paris, 2020
Désirs - Exhibition view, mor charpentier, Paris, 2015
La Puissance et la Jouissance, 2015 - Installation with digital prints and magnifying glasses
We Who Feel Differently - Exhibition view, MoMA, New York, 2023
We Who Feel Differently - Exhibition view, New Museum, New York, 2012
We Who Feel Differently, 2012 - Series of 20 digital prints
Shape of Freedom, 2012 - Wall installation - Exhibition view, New Museum, New York, 2012
La Libertad es un proyecto colectivo - Site specific installation - Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros, Mexico City, 2013
Gender Talents: A Special Address - Symposium - The Tanks at Tate Modern, London, 2013
Deviations to Love, 2013 - Digital projection
Deus Pobre, 2011 - Wall installation with puzzles on shelves - Exhibition view, Fundaçao serralves, Porto, 2011
Deus Pobre, 2011 - Digital print on handcut wooden puzzle
Six Acts: an Experiment in Narrative Justice, 2010 - 6 channel video – Exhibition view, Guggenheim Museum, New York, 2011
Six Acts: an Experiment in Narrative Justice, 2010 - Video installation – Exhibition view, Banco de la Republica, Bogota, 2010
The Good Life – Exhibition view, ICA, Philadelphia, 2008
Brief History, 2005 - Vinyl mural - Exhibition view, MoMA PS1, New York, 2009
Formas de Libertad - Exhibition view, Museo de Arte Moderno, Medellín, 2017
Untitled, 1998 - Series of digital prints – Exhibition view, 32nd Bienal de Sao Paulo, 2016
Untitled, 1998 - Digital print
Untitled, 1998 - Digital print
Untitled, 1998 - Digital print
Self-Portrait with Death, 1996 - Digital print
Untitled Self-Portrait, 2018 - Digital print