Autorretrato flameante, mirando al mismo tiempo a dos mares, asomándome para tirar guiños a los cardones, las chirinolas, los cirios, las biznagas, los alicoches, los lentiscos, las yucas, los saladitos, las jojobas, los chamizos, las pitayas, los chilicotes, las choyas, los ocotillos, y al tecolote llanero, mientras me tumbo un par de tostadas de abulón y almeja chocolata, junto con sus buenos guarapos, una kawazaki rusa bien helodia, y un licor de damiana, escuchando la sublime ‘El invisible’, mientras tiro un chiflido llanero que se escuchará en toda la península, antes de que llegue el ferry
Arte Abierto is pleased to announce the opening of Arte Abierto Baja, its new venue in the heart of Cabo del Sol, located within the architectural complex of Ánima Village. The installation commissioned especially for this important moment in the history of tArte Abierto Foundation is by Mexican artist Abraham Cruzvillegas.
The installation entitled Autorretrato flameante, mirando al mismo tiempo a dos mares, asomándome para tirar guiños a los cardones, las chirinolas, los cirios, las biznagas, los alicoches, los lentiscos, las yucas, los saladitos, las jojobas, los chamizos, las pitayas, los chilicotes, las choyas, los ocotillos, y al tecolote llanero, mientras me tumbo un par de tostadas de abulón y almeja chocolata, junto con sus buenos guarapos, una kawazaki rusa bien helodia, y un licor de damiana, escuchando la sublime ‘El invisible’, mientras tiro un chiflido llanero que se escuchará en toda la península, antes de que llegue el ferry, 2025, is the artwork with which the new space of Commissions and Exhibitions of Arte Abierto Baja opens.
True to his practice, Abraham Cruzvillegas conceives this work from everyday objects and discarded materials collected in Los Cabos, articulating a sculptural language that explores the relationships between labor, landscape, and what the artist calls his “mineral soul” or “ánima.” The piece will be assembled in situ, using materials sourced from the immediate surroundings and directly engaging with the geographic, social, and cultural conditions of the place.
The colors and materials of the installation — particularly the pink and green palette — refer to the flag of the Mangueira favela and samba school in Rio deJaneiro, a community that profoundly shaped the artist’s vision after his visit in 2003. This encounter resonated with his own personal history in ColoniaAjusco, in Coyoacán, where autoconstrucción (self-construction) and community collaboration emerged as creative responses to inequality. Cruzvillegas has explored these global correspondences through informal settlements such as favelas, shantytowns, callampas, villas miseria, or baraccopolis, structures that reveal forms of collective ingenuity and adaptation.
With this work, the artist opens a dialogue about the place of public art, its relationship to the social context, and its inscription within the natural landscape of Baja California Sur.
Abraham Cruzvillegas’ artistic process is deeply influenced by his surroundings. Instead of being defined by a particular medium, many of his projects connect through the idea of autoconstrucción: a concept that draws from the ingenious, precarious, and collaborative building tactics implemented by the people living in Colonia Ajusco, his childhood neighborhood in Mexico City. Cruzvillegas adopts an approach based on inventive improvisation and instability, presenting change as a permanent state, emerging from the chaotic and fragmentary nature of life. The evolving notion of autoconstrucción has, in turn, generated explorations into similar concepts, such as autodestrucción and autoconfusión. These inquiries have led the artist not only to explore his own origins, but to collaborate with family and friends in a very personal form of research, resulting in a constant process of learning: about materials, landscape, people, and himself.
Through various media, including sculpture, painting, drawing, installation, and video, Cruzvillegas reveals a close and constant engagement with the material world—immersing himself in the ongoing construction and transformation of personal and collective identities. His sculptures challenge prevailing conceptions of art making by using a wide range of collected objects, while his paintings and drawings depict subjects with a strong sense of humor, instilled by his early training as a political cartoonist. Parallel to his artistic production, Cruzvillegas has cultivated writing as an investigative tool of self-analysis that merges history, criticism, and fiction. His lyrics and texts about art, politics, and culture constitute a significant element of his practice.
Cruzvillegas studied Pedagogy from 1986 to 1990 at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México (UNAM) in Mexico City, while simultaneously attending Gabriel Orozco’s workshop, Taller de los viernes. In 2012, he was the 5th winner of the Yanghyun Prize and received the Prix Altadis d’arts plastiques in 2006.
Cruzvillegas lives and works in Mexico City.
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