Artist Biography

Hemmer
Rafael Lozano-Hemmer was born in Mexico City in 1967. In 1989 he received a B.Sc. in Physical Chemistry from Concordia University in Montréal, Canada. Media artist working at the intersection of architecture and performance art. He creates platforms for public participation using technologies such as robotic lights, digital fountains, computerized surveillance, media walls, and telematic networks. Inspired by phantasmagoria, carnival, and animatronics, his light and shadow works are "antimonuments for alien agency". He was the first artist to represent Mexico at the Venice Biennale with an exhibition at Palazzo Van Axel in 2007. He has also shown at Biennials in Cuenca, Havana, Istanbul, Kochi, Liverpool, Melbourne NGV, Moscow, New Orleans, New York ICP, Seoul, Seville, Shanghai, Singapore, Sydney, and Wuzhen. His public art has been commissioned for the Millennium Celebrations in Mexico City (1999), the Expansion of the European Union in Dublin (2004), the Student Massacre Memorial in Tlatelolco (2008), the Vancouver Olympics (2010), the pre-opening exhibition of the Guggenheim in Abu Dhabi (2015), and the activation of the Raurica Roman Theatre in Basel (2018). Collections holding his work include MoMA and Guggenheim in New York, TATE in London, MAC and MBAM in Montreal, Jumex, and MUAC in Mexico City, DAROS in Zurich, MONA in Hobart, 21C Museum in Kanazawa, Borusan Contemporary in Istanbul, CIFO in Miami, MAG in Manchester, SFMOMA in San Francisco, ZKM in Karlsruhe, SAM in Singapore and many others. He has received two BAFTA British Academy Awards for Interactive Art in London, a Golden Nica at the Prix Ars Electronica in Austria, "Artist of the year" Rave Award from Wired Magazine, a Rockefeller fellowship, the Trophée des Lumières in Lyon, an International Bauhaus Award in Dessau, the title of Compagnon des Arts et des Lettres du Québec in Quebec, and the Governor General's Award in Canada. He has lectured at Goldsmiths College, the Bartlett School, Princeton, Harvard, UC Berkeley, Cooper Union, USC, MIT MediaLab, Guggenheim Museum, LA MOCA, Netherlands Architecture Institute, Cornell, UPenn, SCAD, Danish Architecture Center, CCA in Montreal, ICA in London, and the Art Institute of Chicago. In the past two years, Lozano-Hemmer was the subject of 9 solo exhibitions worldwide, including a major show at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington DC, the inaugural show at the AmorePacific Museum in Seoul, and a mid-career retrospective co-produced by the Musée d’Art Contemporain de Montréal and SFMOMA. In 2019 his immersive performance “Atmospheric Memory” premiered at the Manchester International Festival and his interactive installation “Border Tuner” connected people across the US-Mexico border using bridges of light controlled by the voices of participants in Ciudad Juárez, Chihuahua and El Paso, Texas.

Solo Exhibitions

2023

2022

  • 13th Mercosul Biennial (curated by: Marcello Dantas), Ministry of Citizenship and Santander, Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, September 15th - November 20th.
  • Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Common Measures (curated by: Kimberly Jones), PACE Gallery New York, New York City, New York, United States, September 8th - October 22nd.
  • Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Listening Forest (curated by: Alejo Benedetti), Crystal Bridges Museum of American Art, North Forest Trail, Bentonville, Arkansas, United States, August 31st - January 1st 2023.
  • Design Miami / Basel, Superblue, Messe Basel, Basel, Switzerland, June 14th - June 19th.
  • Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: EXCUSE YOU!, Wilde Gallery, Basel, Switzerland, June 13th - August 20th.
  • Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Caudales, Casa de México España, Madrid, Spain, February 26th - April 24th.
  • Rafael Lozano-Hemmer: Haciendo Agua, Max Estrella, Madrid, Spain, February 19th - April 16th.

2021

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2007

  • Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, bitforms gallery, New York City, New York, United States.

2006

  • Under Scan, East Midlands Development Agency, Castle Wharf, Nottingham, United Kingdom, started in March. Public art commission.
  • Under Scan, East Midlands Development Agency, Market Square, Derby, United Kingdom, February - March. Public art commission.
  • Under Scan, East Midlands Development Agency, Market Square, Northampton, United Kingdom, started in February. Public art commission.

1997

1995

  • ARCO '95 - The Trace, Fundacion Arte y Tecnologia, Madrid, Spain.

Group Exhibitions

2023

  • Armory Show, Max Estrella, New York City, New York, United States, September 8th - September 10th.
  • Difference Machines: Technology and Identity in Contemporary Art, Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Gray Area, San Francisco, California, United States, July 7th - August 31st.
  • La imagen humana: arte, identidades y simbolismo, La Fundación La Caixa, Barcelona, Spain, July 4th - October 22nd.
  • Renaissance 3.0: New Alliances of Art and Science in the 21st Century (curated by: Peter Wiebel), Zentrum für Kunst und Medien Karlsruhe, Karlsruhe, Germany, March 25th - January 7th 2024.
  • Asuntos de Nuestro (curated by: Cristian Reynaga), +CODE, Espacio de Arte Contemporáneo, Montevideo, Uruguay, March 16th - June 4th.
  • Art Dubai ‘23, GALLOIRE, Dubai, United Arab Emirates, March 1st - March 5th.
  • ARCO ‘23, Galería Max Estrella, Madrid, Spain, February 22nd - February 26th.
  • I’ll Be Your Mirror: Art and the Digital Screen, The Modern Art Museum of Fort Worth, Fort Worth, Texas, United States, February 12th - April 30th.
  • The NewArt {collection}, V2_Lab for the Unstable Media, Rotterdam, Netherlands, February 9th - March 4th.
  • Difference Machines: Technology and Identity in Contemporary Art, Buffalo AKG Art Museum, Beall Center for Art + Technology, Irvine, California, United States, January 28th - April 29th.
  • Arkive at World Economic Forum, Arkive, Switzerland, January 16th - January 20th.

2022

2021

  • Art For the Future (curated by: Michal Rovner), teamlab, Random International, Moscow, Russia, December 20th - April 3rd 2022.
  • NEMO, Biennale des arts électroniques d’Ile de France, Centre Culturel Canadien, Paris, France, December 9th - April 15th 2022.
  • Echoes. A World between the Analogue and the Virtual (curated by: Diana B. Wechsler), Bienal Sur 2021, Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, November 30th - January 30th 2022.
  • Untitled Art Fair, Galería Max Estrella, Miami, Florida, United States, November 29th - December 5th.
  • Untitled Art Fair, bitforms Gallery, Miami, Florida, United States, November 29th - December 5th.
  • Paris Photo, PACE Gallery New York, Paris, France, November 11th - November 14th.
  • Difference Machines: Technology and Identity in Contemporary Art (curated by: Tina Ryan), Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York, United States, October 16th - January 16th 2022.
  • Echoes. A World between the Analogue and the Virtual (curated by: Diana B. Wechsler), Bienal Sur 2021, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, October 15th - November 15th.
  • El Devenir / Becoming, The Front y Cultura Gallery, San Ysidro, California, United States, October 7th - January 13th 2022.
  • A Generative Movement, Bitforms, San Francisco, California, United States, October 2nd - February 5th 2022.
  • Reimagining Mourning, Sur Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada, September 30th - November 27th.
  • La imagen humana: arte, identidades y simbolismo, La Fundación La Caixa, Barcelona, Spain, September 29th - January 23rd 2022.
  • Smart to the Core: Medium / Image, Smart Museum of Art - The University of Chicago, Chicago, Illinois, United States, September 23rd - December 12th.
  • Vers un Imaginaire Numérique, Centre de Design de l’UQÀM, Montréal, Québec, Canada, September 15th - November 7th.
  • Combien de temps faut-Il pour qu’une voix atteigne l’autre?, Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada, September 11th - February 13th 2022.
  • Recurrent Anaximander, Superblue, Miami, Florida, United States, September 1st - December 31st 2022.
  • Shifting Proximities (curated by: Bogomir Doringer), Nxt Museum, Amsterdam, Netherlands, June 1st - May 8th 2022.
  • La imagen humana: arte, identidades y simbolismo, La Fundación La Caixa, Madrid, Spain, April 29th - August 29th.
  • Noor Festival (curated by: Susan Davidson), The Aimes Group, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, March 18th - June 12th.

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2015

2014

2013

2012

2011

2010

2009

  • Extra-Muros (curated by: Alain Mongeau), Mutek Festival 10th anniversary, Red light district, Montréal, Québec, Canada, May 27th - May 31st.
  • 5 Solos, Galería OMR, Mexico City, México.
  • ARCO '09, Haunch of Venison, Madrid, Spain.
  • Armory Show, Galería OMR, New York City, New York, United States.
  • Art & Electronic Media (curated by: Edward Shanken), bitforms gallery, New York City, New York, United States.
  • Being in the World (curated by: Berta Sichel), The Cisneros Fontanals Foundation, Miami, Florida, United States.
  • Conjugaciones: Arte Contemporáneo Latinoamericano en la Colección FEMSA (curated by: Miriam Kaiser), Museo de los pintores Oaxaqueños, Oaxaca, México.
  • Decode, digital design sensations (curated by: Louise Shannon and Ligaya Salazar), Victoria and Albert Museum, London, United Kingdom.
  • Emergentes (curated by: José-Carlos Mariategui), Fundación Telefónica, Santiago, Chile.
  • Enter Action-Digital Art Now (curated by: Gitte Orskou, Anne Sophie Lossing, Pernille Taagaard Dinesen and Anne Sophie Witzke), ARoS Aarhus Kunstmuseum, Aarhus, Denmark.
  • Hundred Stories about Love (curated by: Chieko Kitade), 21st Century Museum of Contemporary Art, Kanazawa, Japan.
  • Inpoliticos (curated by: Laura Bardier), Palazzo Art Napoli, Naples, Italy.
  • Open Space (curated by: Yukiko Shikata), NTT InterCommunication Center (ICC), Tokyo, Japan.
  • Pulse Art Fair, bitforms gallery, Miami, Florida, United States.
  • Socially Active (curated by: Rachael Baum, Vivian So Hyun Choi, Helena Copsey, Sue-Na Gay, Grace Zihua Lu and Sara Taylor), University Gallery, University of Essex, Colchester, United Kingdom.
  • The World is Yours (curated by: Anders Kold), Louisiana Museum, Copenhagen, Denmark.
  • Un Mundo Feliz (curated by: Rewell Altunaga), 10th Bienal de la Habana, Havana, Cuba.
  • White Tie & Tiara Charity Ball, Elton John AIDS Foundation, London, United Kingdom.
  • YOU_ser_: Das Jarhundert des Konsumenten (curated by: Peter Weibel), Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, Germany.

2008

  • Pulse Miami, bitforms gallery, Miami, Florida, United States, December 3rd - December 7th.
  • The Prisoner's Dilemma (curated by: Leanne Mella), The Cisneros Fontanals Foundation, Miami, Florida, United States, December 3rd - March 1st 2009.
  • Maquinas y Almas - Souls and Machines (curated by: Montxo Algora and Jose Luis de Vicente), Museo Nacional Reina Sofía, Madrid, Spain, June 26th - October 12th.
  • Haunch of Venison, New York City, New York, United States.
  • Art Basel 39, Galería OMR, Basel, Switzerland.
  • Art Forum, Galerie Guy Bärtschi, Berlin, Germany.
  • Asedio (curated by: José Luis Barrios), Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, México.
  • Emergentes (curated by: José-Carlos Mariategui), Centro Fundación Telefónica, Lima, Perú.
  • Emergentes (curated by: José-Carlos Mariategui), Espacio Fundación Telefónica, Buenos Aires, Argentina.
  • Fortunate Objects (curated by: Cecilia Fajardo Hill), The Cisneros Fontanals Foundation, Miami, Florida, United States.
  • In Memoriam Albert Hofmann (curated by: Michel Blancsubé), Laberinto de la Ciencia y Las Artes, Jumex Collection, San Luis Potosí, México.
  • Intruders (curated by: Mélanie Boucher), Musée national des beaux-arts du Québec, Québec, Québec, Canada.
  • LOOP '08, Galerie Guy Bärtschi, Catalonia Ramblas Hotel, Barcelona, Spain.
  • New Zealand Festival, Te Papa Museum, Wellington, New Zealand.
  • No es Neutral (curated by: Felicitas Rausch), La Tabakalera, International Contemporary Culture Centre, San Sebastián, Spain.
  • Phantasmagoria: Specters of Absence (curated by: José Roca), Fisher Gallery, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, United States.
  • Phantasmagoria: Specters of Absence (curated by: José Roca), McColl Center for Visual Art, Charlotte, North Carolina, United States.
  • Phantasmagoria: Specters of Absence (curated by: José Roca), Salina Art Center, Salina, Kansas, United States.
  • Phantasmagoria: Specters of Absence (curated by: José Roca), The John and Marbe Ringling Museum of Art, Sarasota, Florida, United States.
  • Prospect.1, New Orleans Bienniale (curated by: Dan Cameron), New Orleans Museum of Art, New Orleans, Louisiana, United States.
  • Synthetic Times - Media Art China, A Beijing Olympics Cultural Project (curated by: Zhang Ga), National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China.
  • The Art of Participation: 1950 to now (curated by: Rudolf Frieling), San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, San Francisco, California, United States.
  • The Fifth Floor: Ideas Taking Space (curated by: Peter Gorschlüter, Lindsey Fryer and the people of Liverpool), Tate Liverpool, Liverpool, United Kingdom.
  • Turn and Widen, 5th Seoul International Media Art Bienniale (curated by: Raul Zamudio), Seoul Museum of Art, Seoul, South Korea.
  • YOUniverse, 3rd International Bienniale of Contemporary Art (curated by: Peter Weibel, Marie-Ange Brayer and Wonil Rhee), Centro Andaluz de Arte Contemporáneo de Sevilla, Sevilla, Spain.

2007

  • Art Basel Miami Beach, Galería OMR, Miami, Florida, United States, December 6th - December 9th.
  • E-art (curated by: Jean Gagnon), Musée des Beaux-Arts de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada, September 20th - December 9th.
  • Art Basel 38, Galería OMR, Basel, Switzerland, June 13th - June 17th.
  • LA Art in New York, Galería OMR, New York City, New York, United States, February 23rd - February 25th.
  • ARCO '07, Galerie Guy Bärtschi, Madrid, Spain, February 15th - February 19th.
  • ARCO '07, Galería OMR, Madrid, Spain, February 15th - February 19th.
  • ARCO '07, bitforms gallery, Madrid, Spain, February 15th - February 19th.
  • Arte Fiera Bologna, Galerie Guy Bärtschi, Bologna, Italy, January 26th - January 28th.
  • The Cisneros Fontanals Foundation, Miami, Florida, United States.
  • Art Basel Unlimited - Art Basel 38, Galería OMR, Galerie Guy Bärtschi and bitforms gallery, Basel, Switzerland.
  • Art Brussels, Galerie Guy Bärtschi, Brussels, Belgium.
  • Auto Emotion (curated by: Gregory Burke), Power Plant, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
  • Automatic Update (curated by: Barbara London), Museum of Modern Art, New York City, New York, United States.
  • Collective I, Galerie Guy Bärtschi, Genève, Switzerland.
  • Emergentes (curated by: José-Carlos Mariategui), The Laboral Art Center, Gijón, Spain.
  • Floating Artworks (curated by: Bruce Ferguson), TD Centre, Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
  • Huge, Artcore Gallery, Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
  • Lines of Flight (curated by: Celina Jeffrey), LEF-CAAC, Hunter College, New York City, New York, United States.
  • Phantasmagoria: Specters of Absence (curated by: José Roca), ICI, Biblioteca Luis Angel Arango, Bogotá, Colombia.
  • Pulse Fair, bitforms gallery, New York City, New York, United States.

2006

2005

  • Art Basel Miami Beach, Galería OMR, Miami, Florida, United States, started in December.
  • Beyond Delirious, The Cisneros Fontanals Foundation, Miami, Florida, United States, November 30th - February 3rd 2006.
  • Subsculptures, Galerie Guy Bärtschi, Genève, Switzerland, November 5th - January 14th 2006.
  • FIAC, Galerie Guy Bärtschi, Paris, France, October 6th - October 10th.
  • Dataspace (curated by: Priamo Lozada), Laboratorio Arte Alameda, Mexico City, México, February - March.
  • bitforms Seoul, Seoul, South Korea.
  • Centro Cultural de España, Mexico City, México.
  • ARCO '05, Galería OMR, Madrid, Spain.
  • ARCO '05 Black Box (curated by: Mark Tribe), bitforms gallery, Madrid, Spain.
  • Algorithmic Revolution (curated by: Peter Weibel), Zentrum für Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe, Germany, January - January 2007.
  • Art Basel 36, Galería OMR, Basel, Switzerland.
  • Art Basel Unlimited - Art Basel 36, Galería OMR, Basel, Switzerland.
  • Art Brussels, Galerie Guy Bärtschi, Brussels, Belgium.
  • Art Cologne, Galería Metropolitana, Cologne, Germany.
  • Art Meets Media (curated by: Yukiko Shikata and Fumihiko Sumitomo), NTT InterCommunication Center (ICC), Tokyo, Japan, January - March.
  • Dataspace, Conde Duque, Madrid, Spain.
  • Elektra Festival, Musée d'Art Contemporain de Montréal, Montréal, Québec, Canada.
  • In the Line of Flight, Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
  • MUSAC (curated by: Agustín Perez Rubio and Rafael Doctor), León, Spain.
  • X Salón de Arte Bancomer (curated by: José Luis Barrios, José Springer and Sylvia Navarrete), Museum of Modern Art, Mexico City, México.

2004

  • Art Basel Miami Beach, Galería OMR, Miami, Florida, United States, started in December.
  • Techniques of the Visible (curated by: Xu Jiang, Sebastián López, Shengtian Zheng and Zhang Qing), Shanghai Biennial, Shanghai Art Museum, Shanghai, China, October - November.
  • Art&D, Society for Arts and Technology (SAT), Montréal, Québec, Canada, September 1st - October 2nd.
  • Navigator exhibition (curated by: Jun-Jieh Wang), National Taiwan Museum of Fine Arts, Taichung, Taiwan, July - August.
  • ARCO '04, Galería OMR, Madrid, Spain.
  • Art Basel Unlimited - Art Basel 35, Galería OMR, Basel, Switzerland.
  • Art Cologne, bitforms gallery, Cologne, Germany.
  • LA MOCA (Digital Gallery) (curated by: Alma Ruiz), Los Angeles, California, United States.
  • LOOP, Galería Metropolitana, Barcelona, Spain.

2003

  • Art Basel Miami Beach, Galería OMR, Miami, Florida, United States, started in December.
  • Critical Conditions (curated by: Tim Druckrey), Wood Street Gallery, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States.
  • Ill Communication (curated by: Rob Tufnell), Dundee Contemporary Art, Dundee, United Kingdom.
  • OPEN: New Designs for Open Space, Van Alen Institute, New York City, New York, United States.
  • Paris Photo (curated by: Daniela Franco), Statement Project Room, Paris, France.
  • Radiant City Exhibition (curated by: Achille Bonito Oliva), Fundación Bancaja, Valencia, Spain.

2002

  • 6th International Festival for Architecture in Video, Florence, Italy.
  • Ars Electronica Festival, OK Centrum, Linz, Austria.
  • Cibervisión 2 (curated by: Karin Ohlenschläger), Conde Duque, Madrid, Spain.
  • E-phos Festival, Athens, Greece.
  • Egofugal (curated by: Yuko Hasegawa), 7th International Istanbul Biennial, Istanbul, Turkey.
  • Emoçao Art.ficial, Itaú Cultural initiative, São Paulo, Brazil.
  • Resonancias, Observatori, Valencia, Spain.
  • Sapphire '02, Atlantico Pavillion, Lisbon, Portugal.

2001

2000

1999

1998

  • Festival de Video de Navarra, Pamplona, Spain.
  • Image architettura in movimento, Torino, Italy.
  • Lo Mejor de los dos Mundos, Cuenca, Ecuador.
  • Viper '98, Webart selection, Lucerne, Switzerland.

1997

  • Arte Virtual, Realidad Plural, Museo de Monterrey, Monterrey, México, November - January 1998.
  • Festival Internacional de Info-arquitectura, MOPU, Madrid, Spain.

1996

1995

1993

  • Akademie der Bildenden Kunste, Nuremberg, Germany.
  • 2!M VR Exhibition, Comunidad de Madrid, Madrid, Spain.
  • ARCO '93, Madrid, Spain.
  • En-red-arte, Círculo de Bellas Artes, Madrid, Spain.
  • Tomorrow's Realities, SIGGRAPH, Anaheim, California, United States.

1991

Permanent Commissions

2022

2020

2019

2018

2017

2016

2014

  • Fiducial Voice Beacons, Science museum, Information Age gallery, London, United Kingdom.
  • Zero Noon, Fidelity HQ, Boston, Massachusetts, United States.

2013

  • Bifurcation, Phi Centre, Montréal, Québec, Canada.

2008

  • Blow-Up Hall 5050 Hotel, Grazyna Kulczyk Foundation, Poznan, Poland.

Residencies / Workshops