Nicanor Aráoz
Record of Performance, Museo de Arte Moderno, Buenos Aires, 2014
Untitled, 2011. Cold porcelain, plaster, Straw broom. 155 x 186 x 120 cms
Untitled, 2011. Digital photography, direct shot. 50 x 60 cms
Untitled, 2011. Goat skin and plaster. 80 x 27 x 20 cms
Untitled, 2010. Chalk, pastel and cigarettes on paper. 60 x 48 cms
Untitled, 2014. Paper, botanical wickerwork, enamelled ceramics, lifeline, amethyst and neon. 190 x 190 x 140 cms.
Untitled, 2014. Collage of magazine paper. 264 x 190 cms
Mocoso Insolente, 2010. Plaster, polyurethane foam, chain and table. 180 x 158 x 85 cms
Untitled, 2013. Satin ribbon, plaster, neon, mirror, coathanger, plastic bag, variable dimensions
Untitled, 2013. Satin ribbon, plaster, neon, mirror, coathanger, plastic bag. Variable dimensions
Untitled, 2010. Resin, stuffed birds, trainers, walkman and sweater. 250 x 320 x 150 cms
Untitled, 2011. Digital photography, direct shot. 50 x 60 cms
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Nicanor Aráoz (Buenos Aires, 1981) produces objects, installations, drawings and sculptures using as his references the comic, imagery from Internet and romantic mythologies taken from gothic art. In his works, procedures involving the making of a surrealistic object, such as the assembly of dissimilar elements and the oneiric component, take on frantic forms resembling nightmares where pleasure and pain seem to merge. Aráoz uses materials as if they expiate sadistic sensations, and takes them to the utmost limits of expressivity and torsion. In narrative scenes he mixes plaster monsters, amorphous masses of resin, trainers, neon lights and biscuits with embalmed cats, mice and birds, thus shaping a world of emotional psychedelics with visual references to the domestic environment of an adolescent.
His latest individual projects are Sueño sólido (Museo Moderno, Buenos Aires, 2020), Placenta escarlata (Barro, Buenos Aires 2018), Because I am never what I have (The Emily Harvey Foundation, New York 2017), Antología Genética (Universidad Torcuato Di Tella, Buenos Aires, 2016), Glótica (Barro, Buenos Aires, 2015), IMNXTC (Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, 2013) and Librada (Galería Alberto Sendrós, Buenos Aires, 2013).In 2019 he was part of Residents Art Dubai curated by Munira Al Sayegh and Fernanda brenner. He was selected by Alec Oxenford Scholarship to travel to do field research in Tokio (2014), Kuitca Scholarship (2010- 2011) and the Artist Program of Torcuato Di Tella University (2009 - 2010). In 2017 he received a scholarship from ISCP (International Studio & Curatorial Program, New York). Chus Martinez included Araoz's work, specially commissioned for the collective exhibition Metamorfosi – Lasciate che tutto vi accada (Castello di Rivoli, Turin, 2018). Inés Katzenstein, Lucrecia Palacios and Alejo Ponce de León have recently published a book of Aráoz’s exhibition Antología Genética (Mansalva, 2018). In 2019 he participated in the residencies Pivô (São Paulo, Brazil) and Art Dubai (Dubai, UAE). Lives and works in Buenos Aires.
exhibitions
AMOR ALIEN
28.08.2025
NICANOR ARÁOZ —Amor Alien— Text MICHEL NIEVA, Room (1) —Frog Community— ARÁOZ, ARAS, MALTZ, Text ALEJO PONCE DE LEÓN, Room (2) Until July 26
news
05.05.2026 NICANOR ARÁOZ in Venice
publications
Nicanor Aráoz. Sueño sólido
Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, 2021
Nicanor Aráoz. Antología genética
Universidad Torcuato Di Tella & Mansalva, Buenos Aires, 2018
Glótica, Nicanor Aráoz
Barro Ediciones, Buenos Aires, 2015
links
Miguel Rosetti, “Amor Alien”. Revista Otra Parte, septiembre 2025Glótica (Barro, 2015)
Luciana Olmedo-Wehitt, “Yo, tú, él, nosotros, vosotros, ellos”. Revista D-Mag, Julio 2013
Marcela Sinclair, “Nicanor Aráoz, poner el cuerpo!!”, El Gran Otro, 2011
Claudio Iglesias, “Esperando nacer”. Suplemento Radar, Página 12, Mayo, 2010
