Adrián Balseca’s work aims to activate strategies of representation, narration, and interaction in order to highlight cultural specificities of a particular place. It explores the relationship and tensions between industrial and craft practices, revealing a fascination with the historic processes, and the configuration of materials involved in the production of manufactured goods. His work ranges from small interventions to large scale "site specific" actions or video documentations and elaborates on ideas of emerging economies, environment and nature, power, and social memory.
Adrián Balseca was born in Quito, Ecuador in 1989. He lives and works in Quito.
Solo exhibitions include: Plantasia Oil Company, Casa do Sertanista / Museu da Cidade de São Paulo, São Paulo (2021); Plantasia Oil Co., N24 Galeria de Arte, Quito (2021); The Unbalanced Land, Madragoa, Lisbon (2019); Estela blanca, Ginsberg Galeria, Lima (2019); Grabador fantasma, CCA, Quito (2019); Horamen, Museo de Arte Precolombiano Casa del Alabado, Quito (2017); The Skin of Labour, Madragoa, Lisbon (2016).
Selected group exhibitions include: Rethinking Nature, Museo Madre, Napoli (2021); Faz escuro mas eu canto, 34a Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo (2020); Journey of a Thousand Miles, CAC, Quito (2019); Cosmopolis #2, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2019); 21st Contemporary Art Biennial Sesc Videobrasi l, São Paulo (2019); osloBIENNALEN, First Edition, Oslo (2019); Museo Amparo, Puebla (2019); BIENAL SUR, Centro Cultural Parque de España, Rosario (2017); CEAAC, Strasbourg (2016); CACQuito (2016); EDOC 15, Quito (2016); Museo de Antioquia, Medellin (2015); Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation Grants & Commissions Program Exhibition, Miami (2015).
In 2013, he won the inaugural Prémio Brasil Emerging Art Prize, at the Center for Contemporary Art Quito (CAC) and in 2014 he received the Premio Paris at the 12th International Cuenca Biennial: Leaving to return. He was awarded the annual Grants & Commissions Program 2015, at the Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation (CIFO).
Reflections in a Black Mirror: An Interview with Adrián Balseca, MoMA Magazine, 2022
Mariana Leme on Adrián Balseca's BadYear (2021), Medio Camino (2014) and PLANTASIA OIL COMPANY (2021), MADRAzine #17, May 2022
White Wake: On the Trial of 'Rubber Fever' in the South American Amazon, Collection Cisneros, 2019
Holly Knox Yeoman on Adrián Balseca's The Unbalanced Land, MADRAzine #6, December 2019
PLANTASIA OIL Co. | Adrián Balseca, N24 Galería de Arte, Quito, Ecuador, 2021 (Spanish only)
Adrián Balseca | 21ª Bienal de Arte Contemporânea Sesc_Videobrasil, São Paulo, Brazil, 2021
Interview with Adrián Balseca - Cosmopolis #2: rethinking the human - Cosmopolis - Centre Pompidou, Paris, France, 2019
Traducciones Crudas/Crude Translations
Installation view at "Nunca lo mismo. Arte latino-americano", ARCOmadrid, Madrid, Spain
February 22nd - 26th 2023
Who tells a tale adds a tail
Installation view at Denver Art Museum, Denver, Colorado, USA
July 31st 2022–March 5th 2023
A flote
Installation on view at Hotel Pipatón, Barrancabermeja, Colombia
June - September, 2022
Rethinking Nature
Installation view at Museo Madre, Naples
December 17th 2021 - March 5th 2022
Plantasia OIL Co.
Installation view at Limbo Shop as part of the project Taffimai Janela, Lisbon, Portugal
September 8th - October 21st, 2021
BadYear
Installation view at 34ª Bienal de São Paulo – Faz escuro mas eu canto, São Paulo, Brazil
September 4th - December 5th, 2021
Plantasia Oil Company
Installation view at 34ª Bienal de São Paulo at Casa do Sertanista / Museu da Cidade de São Paulo, São Paulo, Brazil
August 21st - December 5th, 2021
Hierbas Malas
Installation view at Against Sun and Dust curated by Cornelia Mattiacci and Alessandra Castelbarco Albani at Villa Imperiale, Pesaro, Italy
August 12th - October 3rd, 2021
Plantasia Oil Co.
Installation view at N24 Galería de Arte, Quito, Ecuador
January 19th – February 11th, 2021
Installation view at Galeria Madragoa, Lisbon, Portugal
May 14th – September 21th, 2019
Grabador Fantasma
Project in collaboration with Kara Solar
Installation view at El Centro de Arte Contemporáneo, Quito, Equador
May 11th - July 14th, 2019
Estela Blanca
Installation view at Ginsberg Galería, Lima, Peru
April 3rd - May 11th, 2019
XIV Cuenca Biennial 2018: Living structures. Art as a plural experience
Project in collaboration with Kara Solar
Installation view at Empresa Hidroeléctrica Municipal, Cuenca, Ecuador
November 23rd, 2018 - February 3rd, 2019
Horamen
Installation view at Casa del Alabado, Museo de Arte Preco-lombino, Quito, Ecuador
May 6th - July 30th, 2017
Installation view at Galeria Madragoa, Lisbon, Portugal
November 23rd, 2016 - January 13th, 2017