ASPEN, CO.- The Aspen Art Museum is presenting the solo exhibition of Guadalajara, Mexico–based sculptor and installation artist Gabriel Rico. Gabriel Rico: The Discipline of the Cave, is on view in AAM Galleries 2 & 3 through Sunday, June 16, 2019.

Combining aesthetic traditions associated with the Arte Povera movement and influenced by scientific, philosophical, and geometric principles, Rico collects the fragments, found objects, and materials of contemporary existence. Using culturally manufactured items like neon, taxidermy, concrete, and coins, as well as such natural elements as tree branches, stones, and fruit, he recontextualizes and arranges each in ways that both captivate and confound viewers through their poetic, wry, jarring relationships. Through juxtapositions of objects and an artistic process that fuses the natural and kitsch, Rico elicits a further investigation of our human environment and the natural world via non-mathematical equations using elements that reflect and illuminate a fundamental human urge to achieve balance.

Rico’s AAM presentation consists of a set of specifically arranged new works responding to the architecture of the museum’s first-floor galleries to create an environment that will act as a portrait of contemporary life.

Gabriel Rico (b. 1980, Lagos de Moreno, Mexico) lives and works in Guadalajara. He studied at the Instituto Tecnológico y de Estudios Superiores de Occidente, Guadalajara. Recent exhibitions have taken place at: Arizona State University Art Museum, Tempe, the Power Station, Dallas (both 2017); Gyeonggi Creation Center, Ansan-do, South Korea, Fundación Calosa, Irapuato, Mexico (both 2016); MAZ Zapopan Art Museum, Mexico, Korea Ceramic Foundation, Seoul, Fondazione Giorgio Cini, Venice (all 2015); and Ex-Escuela de Cristo, Aguascalientes, Mexico (2014).