“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]

EDUCATION

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

RESIDENCIES

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

SOLO SHOWS

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

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

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

Metáforas de un andar, Tu Mamá Gallery, Mexico

Vigía, Miguel Angel #116, Nonoalco, Mexico

First biennial of contemporary art “Nunca Fuimos
Nada”, Los 14 Gallery, Mexico

2016

Arts Biennale UNAM 2016, Science and arts
Museum UNAM, Mexico

2013

Metaphors of Death, San Carlos Academy, Mexico City, Mexico

Mat Ex Mortus, Casa Club del Académico AAPAUNAM, Mexico City, Mexico

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, 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

Merit scholarship for the study of the French language 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

2017

Speaker at the Third Interuniversity Meeting
of Arts of Arts University of Veracruz-Autonomous Universityof the State of Mexico, Xalapa, Mexico

Mexico