CV
Carmen Argote
b. 1981 in Guadalajara, México
Carmen Argote is a multidisciplinary artist who works through the act of inhabiting a space. Argote’s practice is in conversation with the site she is working from, often pointing to the body, to class, and to economic structures in relationship to the architecture and to personal history.
Argote is represented by Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles
Education
2009 Skowhegan School of Painting & Sculpture, Maine
2007 MFA, University of California, Los Angeles
2004 BA, University of California, Los Angeles
Awards
2019 Tiffany Foundation Grant
2019 Artadia Los Angeles Award
2018 Nancy Graves Foundation Artist Grant
2015 YoYoYo Grant, Rema Hort Mann Foundation
2013 Emerging Artist Grant, California Community Foundation
Public Art Commissions
2016-2017 Workbook/Notebook, Armory Center for the Arts at La Casita, Pasadena, CA 2016 Metro Expo Line (17th St/SMC Station), Santa Monica, CA
Solo Exhibitions
2020
Me At Market, Visual Arts Center, University of Texas, Austin
2019
As Above, So Below, New Museum, New York, NY
Nutrition for a Better life (Compre Chatarra), Ballon Rouge, Istanbul, Turkey Manéjese Con Cuidado, PAOS, Guadalajara, Mexico
2018
Warm is a Black, Ballon Rouge Collective, New York, NY
Deterioro y Poder (two person exhibition), Instituto de Vision, Bogota, Colombia
The artist, having used all her money to make her work, lives in the mother mold of her sculpture, Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles, CA
If only it were that easy…, 18th Street Arts Center Artist Lab, Santa Monica, CA
2017
Pyramids, Panel LA, Los Angeles, CA
2016
Alex’s Room, Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles, CA Mansion Magnolia, Shulamit Nazarian, Venice, CA
2015
Houses he wanted to build, Adjunct Positions, Los Angeles, CA
A Vast Furniture, MAK Center & High Desert Test Sites, Los Angeles/29 Palms, CA
2014
My father’s side of Home, Human Resources, Los Angeles, CA
2013
720 Sq.ft. Shape Seeps Through, Vincent Price Art Museum, Los Angeles, CA
2010
720 Sq.ft. Household Mutations, G727, Los Angeles, CA
Group Exhibitions
2019
Searching the Sky for Rain, Sculpture Center, Long Island City, NY
Paroxysm of Sublime, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA
Breaking Bread, Oxy Arts, Los Angeles, CA
“CALL GIOVANNI”, Revolver Gallery, Lima, Peru
Dialogues, ARCOmadrid, Instituto de Vision, Madrid, Spain
Room for Failure, Piero Atchugarry Gallery, Miami, FL
Monarchs, Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, Overland Park, KS
2018
In/Situ, EXPO Chicago, Chicago, IL
Made in L.A. 2018, Hammer Museum, Los Angeles, CA
The House Imaginary, San Jose Museum of Art, San Jose, CA
Extracorporeal, Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach, CA
Names Printed in Black, Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions, Los Angeles, CA
Omega Workshop, Elizabeth Foundation for the Arts Project Space, New York, NY
Pacific Standard Time Performance Festival, REDCAT, Los Angeles, CA
Monarchs, Museum of Contemporary Art, North Miami, FL
2017
Monarchs, Bemis Center for the Arts, Omaha, NE
Tierra.Sangre.Oro. Ballroom Marfa, Marfa, TX
Home—So Different, So Appealing, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, CA and Museum of Fine Arts Houston, Houston, TX
Mi Tierra: Contemporary Artists Explore Place, Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO
“Building As Ever, Pacific Triennial,”Orange County Museum of Art, Newport Beach, California.
Escape Attempts, Shulamit Nazarian Gallery, Venice, CA
2016
PlaceBound, Nan Rae Gallery, Woodbury University, Burbank, CA On Inhabiting, Ave 50 Gallery, Los Angeles, CA
2015
En La Espera, Me Fui Y Luego Regrese, Mexican Consulate, Los Angeles, CA
The House on Mango Street, The National Museum of Mexican Art, Chicago, IL
Perfect Strangers Art & Performance Festival, Bergamot Station, Santa Monica, CA
2014
5th Chicana/o Biennial, MACLA, San Jose, CA
Watermelons, no catchies or bouncies, Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles, CA Million Year Picnic, Gallery Fu, Japan
Ex nihilo, Eastside International, Los Angeles, CA
Unsparing Quality, Diane Rosenstein Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA
2013
SUR Biennial, Rio Hondo College, Torrance, CA
SUR Biennial, Torrance Art Museum, Torrance, CA
First Anniversary Show, Diane Rosenstein Fine Art, Los Angeles, CA
2010
Surface Tension_LA, G727, Los Angeles, CA
2009
Birds, Michael’s Restaurant, Santa Monica, CA
2008
Terra-Byte 3.0, Los Angeles County Arboretum, Arcadia.
Press and Publications
2020
Duron, Maximiliano. “Economics of Art and Avocados: Carmen Argote Transplants the world to the New Museum in NY,” Artnews (January 3)
Gutierez, Laura G. “Resonating Drips in Carmen Argote’s Pockets,” Visual Arts Center, University of Texas at Austin (January 24)
2019
Loiseau, Benoit. “For Carmen Argote, Avocados are a paint and a powerful metaphor,” Frieze (October 21)
Dambrot, Shana Nys. “Meet an Artist,” LA Weekly, (April 15)
2018
Gerwin, Daniel. “An Artist Asserts Control Over the Commodification of Her Work,” HyperAllergic (August 2)
Chiara Giovando, Carmen Argote. The Economics of an Exhibition. Printed on the occasion of Made in LA 2018.
Chang, Scarlett. “Carmen Argote: Riding it Out.” Artillery Magazine. https://artillerymag.com/carmen- argote-riding-it-out/
Mao, Carren. “A Motorcycle Journey Leads to Healing.” KCET Artbound. https://www.kcet.org/shows/ artbound/a-motorcycle-journey-leads-to-healing
2017
Albarracin, Victor. “Houses, Mansions, and Pyramids.” Terremoto Magazine. http://terremoto.mx/article/houses-mansions-and-pyramids/
Slenske, Michael. “Hecho en Mexico, Made for LA.” LALA Magazine, Fall 2018.
2016
Reality and Imagination: Three Unique Shows at the Armory in Pasadena. Artandcakela.com
Wagley, Catherine. Best up-and coming artist, LA Weekly Best of LA 2016
Khoshgozaran, Gelare. “Porous Identification, Radical Transformation and Immigrant Imagination: in the works of Carmen Argote”, contemporary.org
Yates, Calder. “Carmen Argote: Mansion Magnolia at Shulamit Nazarian,” DailyServing.
Slenske, Michael. “Empty House: Carmen Argote Delves Into Family History for her latest Exhibition,” Wallpaper.
Personal Architecture, Aztlan: A Journal of Chicano Studies. Volume 41, Spring.
2015
The Source.metro.net. Art for the Expo Line: Installation at 17th Street/SMC Station
2014
Merino, Amalia M.. The Source.metro.net. Sneak peek into fabrication process for artwork at Expo Line’s 17th Street/SMC Station.
Fragoza, Carribean. “Migrant Blueprints: Carmen Argote and the Perpetual Construction of Home,” Arbound/KCET.
Fabrik 25. Emergent Presence. ARTRA Curatorial.
2012
“Wild Cats and Meadowlarks: Creating in L.A.” The Paris Review Blog. http://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2012/10/24/wild-cats-and-meadowlarks-creating-in-l-a/.
“Gold leafing the Dream,” www.blog.alexcmoore.com.
2010
New City Reader, New Museum, New York, NY. http://newcityreader.net Art News. “720 Sq. Ft. Household Mutations,” G727 gallery.