Antonio Vega Macotela

Antonio Vega Macotela

Mexico City, Mexico, 1980. Lives and works in Mexico City, Mexico and Amsterdam, The Netherlands.

Antonio Vega Macotela's work is multidisciplinary and designed for specific communities and contexts. Through his work, the artist explores the notions of work, value, and exchange, specifically concerning the system through which social relations are established and negotiated. It also refers to alienation in economic systems and their social structures. Vega Macotela uses art as a tool for change in which he reevaluates and recontextualizes the meaning of everyday life.

The artist focuses on the processes of creation, the interactions, negotiations, and collaborations involved in today’s society. His work is located at the intersection of several equivalence chains that connect labor and artistic practice within a single economy, participating in prolonged temporalities.

El cincel y el socavón | Detalle Madera y metal | 150 x 220 x 260 cm | 2016 - 2017

The chisel and the sinkhole | Detail Wood and metal | 59.06 x 86.61 x 102.36 inches | 2017

El cincel y el socavón | 13 dibujos a lápiz sobre papel algodón perforado | 81 x 75 x 2 cm | 2016-2017

The chisel and the sinkhole | 13 pencil drawings on perforated cotton paper | 32 x 29 inches | 2016 - 2017

Estudios del Agotamiento: estudio no. IV, Especulación | Polvo de mármol y yeso, impresión en 3D  17 x 13.5 x 15cm | 2014 - 2015

Study of Exhaustion: Study No. 4, Speculation | Marble and plaster powder, 3D printing | 6.6 x 5.3 x 5.9 inches | 2014

Estudios del Agotamiento: estudio no. III, La carne | Ensamblaje de aluminio, hueso, bronce y acero. | 28.5 x 23.5 x 23.5 cm | 2013

Study of Exhaustion: Study No. 3, The Flesh | Assembly of aluminum, bone, bronze and steel. | 11.22 x 9.25 x 9.25 inches | 2013

Estudios sobre el agotamiento no. II, La transmutación de las cenizas | 120 botas de barro negro | 25 x 25 x 12 cm c/u | 2013

Study of Exhaustion: Study No. 2, The Transmutation of Ashes | 120 black clay boots | 9.84 x 9.84 x 4.72 inches each | 2013

Dog/God | 23 periódicos | 58 x 32 cm c/u 2011

Dog/God | 23 Newspapers | 22.83 x 12.6 inches each | 2011

Murmullos | 7 periódicos | 58 x 32 cm c/u | 2011
Time Divisa 349, 350, 351 | Jabones aromáticos |  12 x 5x 1.5 cm 2010

Time Currency 349, 350, 351 |Aromatic soaps | 4.72 x 1.97 x .59 inches | 2010

Time Divisa 260 - 267 | Cera y tela | 56 x 43 cm 2009

Time Currency 260-267 | Wax and cloth | 22.05 x 16.93 inches | 2009

Habemus Gasoline | Recipientes para aguas de frutas, tamaleros, destilero de tequila, bancos, cubetas para helados, tubos de metal | 480 x 380 x 320 cm | 2008

Habemus gasoline |Containers for fruit water, tequila destiller, stools, ice cream buckets, metal tubes | 188.98 x 149.61 x 125.98 inches | 2008

«The work of Vega Macotela creates a territory in which we can talk about economy as a system that creates representations and interactions.»

The work of Vega Macotela creates a territory in which we can talk about the economy as a system that generates representations and interactions. In the artist’s own words: "art is significant; it is symbolic. The actions that affect society are also symbolic, and the artist's work lies in working with those symbols and those meanings. It is about expanding wills and generating possibilities to see and think.”

Intercambio 148 | 2008 | Colillas de cigarros | 21 x 28 cm

Time exchange 148 | 2008 | Cigarette butts | 8.27 x 11.02 inches

Intercambio 63 | 2006 | Pluma sobre papel | 28 x 43 cm

Time exchange 63 | 2006 | Pen on paper 11.02 x 16.93 inches

Antonio Vega Macotela is currently an artist in residence at the Brooklyn campus of the Amant Foundation (New York). He has undertaken other residencies at Gasworks in London (2018), Rijksakademie in Corea (2015) and Amsterdam (2011-2012), and Le Pavillon, Palais du Tokio in Paris (2014). 

Selected exhibitions: 34th Bienal de Sao Paulo, Sao Paulo Brazil (2021) ; Highline Art, New York (2021); Toi et moi, on ne vit pas sur la même planète”, Centre Pompidou-Metz (2021); 12º Bienal de Taipei, Taipei, China (2020) ; “#TodosSomosHonolulu”, LABOR, Mexico City, Mexico (2020) ; “Fin del Futuro”, La Tallera, Cuernavaca, Mexico (2019) ; “Incendio”, CIAP, Hasselt, Belgium (2019) ; “Confortably Numb”, Another Space, New York, United States (2018) ; “Constructing the World: Art and Economy 2008-2018”, Kunsthalle Mannheim, Mannheim, Germany (2018) ; “Stories of Almost Everyone”, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, United States (2018) ; documenta 14, Kassel, Germany (2017) ; “Lecturas de un territorio fracturado”, Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico (2017) ; “Asymmetrical Warfare”, Witte de With Contemporary Art Center, Rotterdam, The Netherlands (2015) ; “Pheidippidics – Studies on Exhaustion”, LABOR, Mexico City, Mexico (2015).

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