Artist Gabriel Orozco to Receive Americas Society Cultural Achievement Award

New York, October 31, 2014—Americas Society is honored to recognize Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco with the first Americas Society Cultural Achievement Award on Tuesday, November 4, 2014 for his artistic excellence and his contribution to the creation of a language in Latin American contemporary art that has a global appeal.

The Americas Society Cultural Achievement Award, which recognizes extraordinary creativity and artistic mastery among Latin American cultural figures, will be presented to Gabriel Orozco at a dinner and award ceremony to be held at the Society’s landmark building on Park Avenue in New York. The evening, sponsored by the international auction house Phillips, will feature a conversation between Mr. Orozco and Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee, a Rhodes Scholar and leading cancer physician who won a Pulitzer Prize for his 2010 book The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer.

"As we prepare to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of our organizations in 2015, the creation of the first Americas Society Cultural Achievement Award reaffirms our commitment to highlight and support culture in the hemisphere," said Americas Society and Council of the Americas President and CEO Susan Segal. "Gabriel Orozco is a truly worthy recipient of this very important recognition."

Born in Veracruz, Mexico in 1962, Gabriel Orozco has developed a critical practice informed by post-colonial thinking and redefined contemporary sculpture through photography and installations. Considered one of the most original artists of his generation, Orozco’s artwork navigates a diverse range of media, including drawing, installation, photography, sculpture, and video. Living and working between New York, Mexico City, and Paris, Orozco has had solo exhibitions at the Kunstahaus Bregenz, Austria (2013); the Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden (2014); the Fruitmarket Gallery, Scotland (2013); the Deutsche Guggenheim, Berlin (2012); and the Guggenheim Museum, New York (2013). He also had a retrospective itinerant exhibition held first in New York’s Museum of Modern Art, traveling to Basel’s Kuntsmuseum, the Pompidou Centre in Paris, and finally London’s Tate Modern (December 2009 through January 2011).

"Gabriel Orozco is one the most refined and complex artists that has emerged after conceptualism. He was able to transform nationalist codes such as tradition and craft them into creative sources that reinvigorate sculpture rather than provide stable definitions of identity," says Americas Society Curator and Visual Arts Director Gabriela Rangel.

The Americas Society Cultural Achievement Award consists of a work created by designer Ariel Rojo. Proceeds from the dinner and award ceremony will go towards fulfilling Americas Society´s mission of promoting the visual arts, music, and literature of the Americas among a diverse audience in the United States.

Image Credit: Gabriel Orozco. Light Signs #7 (Korea, 1995). Synthetic polymer paint on plastic sheet and light box. 39-3/8 x 39-3/8 x 7-3/4 in. 100 x 100 x 19.7 (Inv.#4824). Courtesy of Marian Goodman Gallery.

Press Contact:
Adriana La Rotta | alarotta@as-coa.org | 1-212-277-8384
Kariela Almonte | kalmonte@as-coa.org | 1-212-277-8333

Americas Society is the premier organization dedicated to education, debate and dialogue in the Americas. Established by David Rockefeller in 1965, our mission is to foster an understanding of the contemporary political, social and economic issues confronting Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada, and to increase public awareness and appreciation of the diverse cultural heritage of the Americas and the importance of the inter-American relationship. Americas Society Visual Arts program boasts the longest-standing private space in the U.S. dedicated to exhibiting and promoting art from Latin America, the Caribbean, and Canada; it has achieved a unique and renowned leadership position in the field, producing both historical and contemporary exhibitions.