Yoshua Okón
Yoshua Okón was born in 1970 in Mexico City,
where he currently lives and works
The artist blends mediums, including video, installation, and performance, in order to engage the viewer in a dialogue concerning the complexity of contemporary society. His work is like a series of near-sociological experiments, a humorous provocation, executed for the camera in which he blends staged situations, documentation, and improvisation in order to question habitual perceptions of reality and truth, selfhood and morality. In 2002 Okón received an MFA from UCLA with a Fulbright scholarship.
His solo shows include: Demo, Museo Espacio, Aguascalientes, Mexico (2022), Poder, Matucana 100, Santiago de Chile (2019); Oracle, Blaffer Museum, Houston(2019); Shita (Under), Asakusa, Tokyo (2018); Collateral, Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico (2018) and Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, MUAC, Mexico City (2017); Octopus, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2011); Yoshua Okón: 2007-2010, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco,(2010); Ventanilla Única, Museo Carrillo Gil, Mexico City (2009); Canned Laughter, Viafarini, Milan (2009); SUBTITLED, Städtische Kunsthalle, Munich, Germany (2008); Bocanegra, The Project, New York (2007); Gaza Stripper, Herzliya Museum, Israel (2006); Oríllese a la Orilla, Art & Public, Geneva, Switzerland (2002).
Yoshua Okón has been part of many collective shows, such as XIV Havana Biennale (2022), Excepciones normales: arte contemporáneo en México, Jumex Museum, Mexico City (2021); Línies Vermelles (Red Bars), Centre d’Art la Panera, Lleida, Spain (2020); AMEXICA, The Loft, Servais Family Collection, Brussels (2020); A toi appartient le regard…, Museé du Quai Branly, Paris (2020); Latinoamerica en las colecciones CA2M y Fundación ARCO, Alcalá 31, Madrid (2019); Realidad Programada, Jumex Museum, Mexico City (2018) Reverberaciones, MUAC, Mexico City (2017); What People Do for Money, Manifesta 11, Zurich (2016); 10th Gwangju Biennial, Korea (2014); Permission to BE Global, CIFO Art Space, Miami (2013); 11th Cuenca Biennial, Ecuador (2011); Laughing in a Foreign Language, Hayward Gallery, London (2008); The Age of Discrepancy, MUCA, Mexico City (2007); 6th Mercosul Biennial, Porto Alegre, Brazil (2005); Adaptive Behavior, New Museum, New York (2004); 8th Istanbul Biennial (2003); Mexico City: an exhibition about the exchange rates between bodies and values, PS1 MoMA, New York (2002) and Kunstwerke, Berlin (2002).
Yoshua Okón’s work is in important collections including the Tate Modern, London ; Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Colección Jumex, Mexico City; LACMA, Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Kadist Art Foundation, San Francisco & Paris; Blanton Museum Collection, Austin, USA; Colección Fundación ARCO, Madrid; CIFO, Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami; Fondazione Morra Greco, Naples, Italy; Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, USA; MALI, Museo de Arte de Lima, Peru; MUAC, Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City. Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico; National Gallery of Australia, Canberra; Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, US; National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne.
