“Omar Castillo Alfaro grew up in a central territory of Mesoamerica,
today the province of Hildalgo in Mexico, not far from the ancient cities
of Teotihuacan and Tula. Here, the vestiges of the Toltec empire,
the baroque of Spanish colonial architecture and societal problems
linked to the industrialization of the region, the trafficking of Narcos
and the flight of the population to the United States are all present.
Initially trained in metallurgical and chemical engineering, he worked
in the largest mining operation in Mexico before undertaking artistic
studies that led him to Medellín, Colombia, and then to France. This
process of geographical, artistic and political migration inhabits his work and participates
in the “wild” identity he claims, crossing thetools of feminist theories and decolonial thoughts. As a repository of traditional know-how, he revisits ancestral craft techniques to question trans-generational affects and the persistence of traumas linked to modernity and the colonial continuum. He borrows as much from the Mayan school of painters as from telenovelas or popular poetry to nourish a practice of sculpture and installation through which the past and history hold the present in question. He is a graduate of the Faculty of Chemistry and the Faculty of Art and Design of the National Autonomous University of Mexico and of the National School of Fine Arts of Lyon.”
Text by curator Thomas Conchou [Director of Contemporary Art Center of the Ferme du Buisson, France]2020-2022
National Superior Diploma of Plastic Expression (DNSEP) with the Very Honorable, Comitee Praise, ENSBA Lyon, France
2018
International exchange. Faculty of Arts, University of
Antioquia, August - December, Medellín, Colombia
2014-2018
Bachelor’s degree in Visual Arts. Faculty of Arts and
Design, UNAM, Mexico City, Mexico
2010-2014
Chemical Metallurgical Engineering. Faculty of Chemistry, UNAM (Baccalaureate), Mexico City,
Mexico
COMMISSIONS
2024
Naab Balam, Cité Internationale - Jacquet Métals, Lyon, France
WORKSHOPS
2022
Reenactment with Jazmín Lopéz, Lyon, France
2021
Practices for keeping time with Brennan Gerard & Ryan Kelly, Lyon, France
2024-2025
Casa de Velázquez, Madrid, Spain
2024
Villa Belleville, Paris, France
2023
Cité International des Arts, Paris, France
2021
Théâtre du Grütli (Le Grütli), Geneva, Switzerland
2021
Les Subs, Lyon, France
2018
La Naviera, Madellin, Colombia
EXPERIENCE
2019-2020
Institut Lumière, Internship, Lyon, France
2018
Assistant museology, during the ArtBo Fair 2018,
Casas Reigner Gallery, Bogotá, Colombia
2017
Founding member of Línea Negra Atelier - Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico
Internship in writing, editing and design for the Culture section of EL UNIVERSAL newspaper, Mexico City, Mexico
PUBLICATIONS
Post-Performance Future Method/e, Written by Marie de Brugerolle. Published by T&P Work Unit, France
2024
Tototl, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Paris, France
Naab-Taanaj, Guadalajara 90210 Gallery, Mexico, Mexico
Naab, Institut Culturel du Mexique, Paris, France
2023
Archaeology of Taste - Cité Internationale des Arts,
Paris, France
COLLECTIVE EXHIBITIONS
2025
Remèdes et Poisons - Acte I, Tropiques Atrium (Galerie La Véranda), Martinique.
Remèdes et Poisons - Acte II, Tropiques Atrium (Galerie La Véranda), Martinique.
Mecánica vegetal Vol.7, Guadalajara 90210 Gallery, Mexico, Mexico
Our Souls at Night, Umberto Di Marino Gallery, Naples, IT
2024
LIV®E LIVE Post-Performance Future, Method/e, Centre Pompidou-Paris, Paris, France
Limburg Biënnale, Venray et Maastriicht, Netherlands
Jardin Nocturno, Salon ACME, Mexico, Mexique
Cruella De-Vil, Galerie Sultana, Arles, France.
Radicar, Poush, Aubervilliers, France.
Bisou Magique Chapter 2, Persona Curada, Paris, France
Julio Artist - Run Space, Paris, France.
Tant Chauffe-t-on le fer qu’il rougit, Villa Belleville, Paris, France.
Episode1, 172 Gallery, Paris, France.
DS Galerie, Paris, France.
La vérite, dont la mer est l’histoire, Espace Bouchr, Paris, France.
Odisea Escandón, Guadalajara 90210 Gallery, Mexico, Mexico
2023
Another Land, Pilar Brussels, Brussels, Belgium.
67th Salon de Montrouge, Montrouge, France.
Les Sillons #1, Contemporary Art Center of the Ferme
du Buisson, Noisiel, France.
100 % l’EXPO, Grande Halle de la Villette, Paris
2018
Cuando el Dibujo nos Alcance, La Endina
Remolona, Mexico City, Mexico
Metáforas de un andar, Tu Mamá Gallery, Mexico
City, Mexico.
Vigía, Miguel Angel #116, Nonoalco, Mexico
First biennial of contemporary art “Nunca Fuimos
Nada”, Los 14 Gallery, Mexico City, Mexico.
2016
Arts Biennale UNAM 2016, Science and arts
Museum UNAM, Mexico City, Mexico
2013
Metaphors of Death, San Carlos Academy, Mexico City, Mexico.
Mat Ex Mortus, Casa Club del Académico AAPAUNAM, Mexico City, Mexico
2022
Prix de Paris, ENSBA-Lyon et Cité Internationale des Arts, Paris, France
2018
Selected for the annual auction in the gallery at Casa
Tres Patios, Medellín, Colombia
Research scholarship in the Faculty of Arts at the
University of Antioquia, Medellín, Colombia with the
artist Fredy Alzate Gómez
University Merit Recognition Award for the academic
year by the FAD-UNAM, Mexico City, Mexico
Merit scholarship for the study of the French lan-
guage at the Institut Français d’Amérique Latine (IFAL), Mexico City, Mexico
LECTURES
2025
Speaker at exhibition “Annlee : No Ghost Just A Shell” by Philippe Parreno and Pierre Huyghe (FR), with the collaboration of Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster (FR) at Casa de Lago UNAM, 1st February 2025. Curator: Anaïss Lepages
2024
Speaker at MIRA art faire: Art residencies as sparks of diasporic journey with Naufus Ramirez-figueroa (Arist), Natasa Petresin-Bachelez (Curator: Cité internationale des Arts). Moderated by Carlota de Torregrosa (Curator) Paris, France
l’Oeil Pense, talk between Omar Castillo Alfaro et Annabela Tournon. Institut Culturel du Mexique, Paris, France
2023
Speaker at cycle Et pourtant iels parlent / ENSAD-
Paris et Union de la Jeunesse Internationale, Paris
France. With Vir-Andrés Hera et Annabela Tournon
Speaker at Bisou Magique, Chapter 1 by Persona Curada, La Tour Orion, Montreuil, France
2019
Speaker at the First International Symposium
“A dialogue between contemporary art and
anthropology”, Mexico City, Mexico
2017
Speaker at the Third Interuniversity Meeting
of Arts of Arts University of Veracruz-Autonomous Universityof the State of Mexico, Xalapa, Mexico