Semblanza Biográfica / Bio

Javier Marín has developed a solid career as a visual artist for the last 30 years, holding over 70 solo exhibitions and more than 200 collective shows in Mexico, the USA, Canada, and several countries in South America, Asia and Europe. His artwork can be found in numerous public collections including the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City, the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston, the Santa Barbara Museum of Art, the Blake-Purnell Collection, the Malba-Fundación Constantini Buenos Aires (Argentina), amongst others. In 2008 Marin was awarded the Prize of the Third International Beijing Biennial. In 2010 Retablo, the altarpiece for the Zacatecas Cathedral (UNESCO World Heritage Site in Mexico) was unveiled, a monumental piece he concluded after winning the contest for its project in 2008. In 2010 he presented his sculptural work in Shanghai (at the World Expo 2010) and in Brussels (Royal Museums of Fine Arts of Belgium). Marín was born in Uruapan, Michoacán (Mexico) in 1962. He studied at the San Carlos Academy (National Autonomous University of Mexico/UNAM) in Mexico City where he presently lives and works.
His first exhibitions showed paintings and graphical art. At the beginning of his sculptural work he exclusively used clay; later on he developed pieces in bronze and in last years he has gone beyond traditional methods, experimenting and innovating with polyester resin combined with organic materials, such as amaranto seeds, tobacco, soil or dried meat fibers. The result is a contrast within the same piece of art, between the industrial and artificial character of plastic and the organic, natural and even subtle quality of the other materials.

The increasing presence of larger pieces in public spaces evidently parts from a contemporary conceptualization about urban interventions. Marín’s public artwork opens up towards its physical and human context, offering alternative interpretations of it, as well as of the piece itself. His sculpture takes its exploration to all sorts of places and towards different kinds of experiences, encouraging a constant and dynamic feedback. In his creative work, Marín explores human interactions and follows a sense of balance, in a formal as well as in a conceptual aspect.

“The human as a whole is the center around which Javier Marín’s artwork revolves; he shows living human beings, palpitating, with bodies that present themselves with dignity, proud yet hurt and decomposed. Not fragile, but strengthened individuals. On their skin and flesh they carry the marks and scars of their own existence: a continuous confrontation of apparent opposites, a de- and reconstruction of fragments. His choices of materials as well as his working process, which leaves evident marks on each piece, are substantial elements of the way he conceptualizes his art.” (Citlali Bernhardt)