munich | when there were more donkeys than icosahedrons | gabriel rico

In his sculptures and installations, Mexican artist Gabriel Rico combines natural materials and industrial products and places them into an interactive context, questioning the ambivalent relationship between natural environments and man-made principles of order. max goelitz presents his first solo exhibition in Germany in collaboration with OMR as part of Various Others 2022. 

Rico‘s works are created from found materials and collected objects of everyday life. The artist expands the concept of objet trouvé, in that his sculptures and installations only find their exciting and playful completion through selected combinations of diverse objects and their contrast in color, form, material, time of origin. The evocative title when there were more donkeys than icosahedrons, with its intertwining of time horizons, contrasts and balances between the organic and the geometric, refers to a fundamental principle underlying most of his works. An icosahedron is a geometric solid based on 20 equilateral triangles and is important in mathematics, cluster physics, and for the structure of viruses. 

For the exhibition, Rico has created a new augmented reality work to introduce a further metaphysical level of meaning. A digital sculpture, a human organism, devoid of skin and defying any social attributions, interacts with the real artworks in the space. In the process, its organs grow into tumor-like growths, until finally taking on the shapes of icosahedra.

Opening
Friday 9 September
6 – 9 pm

Artist Talk & Drinks
Augmented Reality with Gabriel Rico
Saturday 10 September
5 – 7.30 pm

Photo Credit: IX from the series -Unity & Uniformity (La Mitla de hérétiques)-, 2022, Brass & two natural feathers, 218x203x4 cm, courtesy of Galería OMR, Mexico City, copyright of the artist, photo: Studio Rico