Horacio Quiroz’s rich painterly depictions of the human body unravel a world of hybrid states and dynamic desires.
With a background in international advertising, the self-taught painter began his artistic career in 2013, and has since built up a body of work that straddles the line between the beautiful and grotesque, utopian and dystopian, the familiar and otherworldly. Informed by queer and ecological theory, Quiroz’s corporeal worlds reveal a cosmological consciousness that expands the relationship between gender, identity, bodies, and environments.
His highly detailed yet fantastical paintings radiate a queer optimism that’s paradoxically rooted in constant change.
Based in Mexico City, Quiroz (b. 1977) earned his Graphic Design BFA from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City. Three years in to his career as a painter, Quiroz’s work was selected for the prestigious 15th Rufino Tamayo Biennial of Painting in Mexico. Quiroz quickly built up a reputation for mind-bending paintings revealing queer representations of the body, nonbinary understandings of gender, and dream states.
Quiroz has exhibited his work internationally in institutions, galleries, and fairs within Europe, the UK, China, Mexico, Canada, Australia, and the United States. Recent solo presentations include Goddesses of Spoiled Lands at Annka Kultys Gallery, London (2023), Retinas de Medusa at Galería Enrique Guerrero, México City (2022), Disturbingly Lively at Galería Colector, Monterrey NL, Mexico (2020), and Polarities at Booth Gallery, New York City (2018).
His work is held in numerous collections including the Beth Rudin de Woody Collection and Colección Mer and he has undertaken international residencies including the PLOP Residency in 2021 in London.
Group exhibitions include Richard Heller Gallery in Los Angeles, Duran Marshaal Gallery in Toronto, Rocket Science in New York City, Future Gallery in Berlin, Annka Kultys Gallery in London, Galería Enrique Guerrero in México City, Colector Gallery in Monterrey and Woaw Gallery in Beijing. Quiroz’s work has been featured in international art publications including Whitehot Magazine, Hyperallergic, Hi Fructose, Juxtapoz, Wallpaper* and others.