Raúl Ortega Ayala
Raúl Ortega Ayala (1973) studied Painting at ‘La Esmeralda’ in Mexico City after which he traveled to the Glasgow School of Art for a Master in Fine Arts. During his master’s degree, he moved away from painting and veered his practice towards Anthropology and began working with the ethnographic method of ‘participant observation.’ Since then, Ortega Ayala has purposefully immersed himself for periods of one or two years in various different contexts such as the office world, food and gardening. This resulted in three different series, titled: ‘Bureaucratic Sonata, An Ethnography on Gardening, and Food for Thought’. He is currently exploring other methodologies used in History and Archaeology for an ongoing series ‘From the Pit of Etc.’ devoted to the concept of absence, trace, and iconoclasm. Raúl Ortega Ayala is currently living and working in Wellington, New Zealand.
Recent group exhibitions include ‘Stirring the Pot of Story’ at the Delfina Foundation in London, ‘Silent Light’ at Dürst Britt & Mayhew, ‘True Story’ at Proyectos Monclova in Mexico City and ‘Yes Naturally’ at the Gemeentemuseum Den Haag in The Hague. Solo exhibitions include ‘Living Remains’ at Stroom Den Haag and ‘Melting Pots’ at Rokeby Gallery in London. Work by Raúl Ortega Ayala is held in private and public collections, including the David Roberts Art Foundation, the AkzoNobel Art Foundation and the VandenBroek Foundation.
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Selected Works
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- Raúl Ortega Ayala, Field note 09-05–16-2 (Bookshop Pripyat, Chernobyl), from the series From the Pit of Et Cetera, 2013-2016, C-print, 120 × 160 cm. In collaboration with Roberto Rubalcava
Raúl Ortega Ayala, Field note 09-05–16-2 (Bookshop Pripyat, Chernobyl), from the series From the Pit of Et Cetera, 2013-2016, C-print, 120 × 160 cm. In collaboration with Roberto Rubalcava
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- Raúl Ortega Ayala, View in Pickersgill Harbour, Dusky Bay, New Zealand (after William Hodges), 2016, from the series ‘From the Pit of Et Cetera’
Mixed media on wood
67.1 × 74.9 × 2.6 cm
RAÚL ORTEGA AYALA View in Pickersgill Harbour, Dusky Bay, New Zealand (a er William Hodges), 2016, from the series ‘From the Pit of Et Cetera’ Mixed media on wood 67.1 × 74.9 × 2.6 cm
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- Raúl Ortega Ayala, Four Figures at a Table (after The Le Nain Brothers), 2016 from the series ‘From the Pit of Et Cetera’
mixed media on wood, 71 × 60.5 × 6.5 cm.
Raúl Ortega Ayala, Four Figures at a Table (a er The Le Nain Brothers), 2016 from the series ‘From the Pit of Et Cetera’ mixed media on wood, 71 × 60.5 × 6.5 cm.
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- from the Food for Thought Series, Babel Fat Tower, fat, bones, table and lamps, photo: Raul Ortega Ayala
Raul Ortega Ayala, from the Food for Thought Series, Babel Fat Tower, fat, bones, table and lamps, photo: Raul Ortega Ayala
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- from the Food for Thought series, Last Supper, video documentation of a happening, photo: Thierry Bal
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- from the Food for Thought series, Last Supper, video documentation of a happening, photo: Thierry Bal
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- from the Food for Thought series, Last Supper, video documentation of a happening, photo: Thierry Bal
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- Raúl Ortega Ayala, from the Food for Thought series, Tomatina-Tim, 2010, two screen video installation
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- Raúl Ortega Ayala, from the Food for Thought series, Tomatina-Tim, 2010, two screen video installation
Raúl Ortega Ayala, from the Food for Thought series, Tomatina-Tim, 2010, two screen video installation
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- from the Food for Thought series, Melting Pots (a fiction based on facts), documented happening
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- from the An Ethnography on Gardening series, 55 dispersed plant images from a found botanical book, framed pages of book and collage
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- Raul Ortega Ayala, from the An Ethnography on Gardening series, The scent of an imaginary flower, designed scent on printed paper
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- from the Bureaucratic Sonata series, I’m useless but god loves me (After Mike Kelley), desk nameplates
