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 Centre d’Art contemporain La Ferme du Buisson, France.
© Photo: Adèle Onnillon
|Press kit↓|
RESIDENCIES
2024-2025
Casa de Velázquez, Madrid, (ES)
2024
Villa Belleville, Paris, (FR)
2023
Cité International des Arts, Paris, (FR)
2021
Théâtre du Grütli (Le Grütli), Geneva, (CH)
2021
Les Subs, Lyon, (FR)
2018
La Naviera, Madellin, (CO)
PRIZES
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, (CO)
Research scholarship in the Faculty of Arts at the University of Antioquia, Medellín, (CO) with the
artist Fredy Alzate Gómez
University Merit Recognition Award for the academic year by the FAD-UNAM, Mexico City, (MX)
Merit scholarship for the study of the French language at the Institut Français d’Amérique Latine (IFAL), Mexico City, (MX)
EXPERIENCE
2019-2020
Institut Lumière, Internship, Lyon, (FR)
2018
Museology assistant during the ArtBo Fair 2018, Casas Reigner Gallery, Bogotá, (CO)
2017
Founding member of Línea Negra Atelier - Gallery, Mexico City, (MX)
Internship in writing, editing and design for the Culture section of EL UNIVERSAL newspaper, Mexico City, (MX)
2024
Tototl, Centre Pompidou-Metz, Paris, (FR)
Naab-Taanaj, Guadalajara 90210 Gallery, Mexico, (MX)
Naab, Institut Culturel du Mexique, Paris, (FR)
2023
Archaeology of Taste - Cité Internationale des Arts,
Paris, (FR)
COLLECTIVE EXHIBITIONS
2025
Remèdes et Poisons - Acte I, Tropiques Atrium (Galerie La Véranda), Martinique, (FR)
Remèdes et Poisons - Acte II, Tropiques Atrium (Galerie La Véranda), Martinique, (FR)
Mecánica vegetal Vol.7, Guadalajara 90210 Gallery, Mexico, (MX)
Our Souls at Night, Umberto Di Marino Gallery, Naples, (IT)
2024
LIV®E LIVE Post-Performance Future, Method/e, Centre Pompidou-Paris, Paris, (FR)
Limburg Biënnale, Venray et Maastriicht, (NE)
Jardin Nocturno, Salon ACME, Mexico, (MX)
Cruella De-Vil, Galerie Sultana, Arles, (FR)
Radicar, Poush, Aubervilliers, France.
Bisou Magique Chapter 2, Persona Curada, Paris, (FR)
Primer aviso, Julio Artist - Run Space, Paris, (FR)
Tant Chauffe-t-on le fer qu’il rougit, Villa Belleville, Paris, (FR)
Episode1, 172 Gallery, Paris, (FR)
Tresser, DS Galerie, Paris, (FR)
La vérite, dont la mer est l’histoire, Espace Boucher, Paris, (FR)
Odisea Escandón, Guadalajara 90210 Gallery, Mexico, (MX)
2023
Another Land, Pilar Brussels, Brussels, (BE)
67th Salon de Montrouge, Montrouge, (FR)
Les Sillons #1, Centre d’art contemporain La Ferme du Buisson, Noisiel, (FR)
100 % l’EXPO, Grande Halle de la Villette, Paris, (FR)
2018
Cuando el Dibujo nos Alcance, La Endina Remolona, Mexico City, (MX)
Metáforas de un andar, Tu Mamá Gallery, Mexico City, (MX)
Vigía, Miguel Angel #116, Nonoalco, (MX)
First biennial of contemporary art Nunca fuimos nada, Los 14 Gallery, Mexico City, (MX)
2016
Arts Biennale UNAM 2016, Science and arts, Museum UNAM, Mexico City, (MX)
2013
Metaphors of Death, San Carlos Academy, Mexico City, Mexico.
Mat Ex Mortus, Casa Club del Académico AAPAUNAM, Mexico City, (MX)
Habiter le temps / Habitar el tiempo Artistes de la Casa de Velázquez 2024-2025. Exhibition catalog, bilingual French-Spanish edition. Published by Casa de Velázquez, (ES), 2025.
Post-Performance Future Method/e, Written by Marie de Brugerolle. Published by T&P Work Unit, (FR)
Art Interrupted. Latin American Artist’s studios, 2024. Published by Línea Recta, (FR)
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 fair. Art residencies as sparks of diasporic journey with Naufus
Ramirez-figueroa (Arist), Natasa Petresin-Bachelez (Curator Cité international des Arts). Moderated by Carlota de Torregrosa (Curator). Paris, (FR)
L’Oeil Pense, talk between Omar Castillo Alfaro et Annabela Tournon. Institut Culturel du Mexique, Paris, (FR)
2023
Speaker at cycle Et pourtant iels parlent / ENSAD-Paris and Union de la Jeunesse Internationale, Paris, (FR) With Vir-Andrés Hera and Annabela Tournon
Speaker at Bisou Magique, Chapter 1 by Persona Curada, La Tour Orion,
Montreuil, (FR)
2019
Speaker at the First International Symposium A dialogue between contemporary art and anthropology, Mexico City, (MX)
2017
Speaker at the Third Interuniversity Meeting of Arts of Arts University of Veracruz. Universidad autónoma of the State of Mexico, Xalapa, (MX)
2025
ARCO x sissi club, Duo show: Camille Bernard & Omar Castillo Alfaro, Madrid, (ES)
2024
Jardin Nocturno, Salon ACME, Mexico, (MX)
COMMISSIONS
Naab Balam, Cité Internationale - Jacquet Métals, Lyon, (FR)
WORKSHOPS
2022
Reenactment with Jazmín Lopéz, Lyon, (FR)
2021
Practices for keeping time with Brennan Gerard & Ryan Kelly, Lyon, (FR)
© Omar Castillo Alfaro, 2025.
Designed by Leyre León in Cargo collective