Gabriel Orozco on show at the Tate Modern

Later this month Tate Modern will open its doors for a retrospective of Mexican artist Gabriel Orozco, the largest presentation of his work in the UK to date. Although Orozco is globally acknowledged as a gifted sculptor, this exhibition of over 80 works will also showcase the artist’s photography, drawing and painting.

A modified Citroen DS in La DS 1993

Orozco is known for his experimentation with both man made and natural objects. His alteration of the classic Citroen DS car to create La DS 1993, which features in the exhibition, is an early example of Orozco’s love of manipulating physical objects to produce something new. He sliced the car into thirds and removed the centre to exaggerate its streamlined design. But the most famous and striking of Orozco’s works is Black Kites 1997, a human skull on which Orozco drew a checkerboard pattern to create an unnerving memento mori, bound to turn heads at the Tate Modern.

Black Kites 1997

The exhibition’s curator, Jessica Morgan, has been following Orozco’s art since the two lived in New York in the early 1990s. She said: “Gabriel Orozco is an artist we have a long relationship with. Orozco’s work is playful as well as thought provoking and we hope the visitors will be as captivated by his limitless imagination as we have been over his two decades of work.”