Oswaldo Maciá

Biography

Born 1960 in Cartagena de Indias, Colombia. 

 

1994

MA Fine Art, Goldsmiths’ College, University of London, England

1993

BA Sculpture, Guildhall University of London, England

1990

Mural Painting, Llotja School, Barcelona, Spain

1980

BA Fine Art, School of Fine Art Cartagena de Indias, Colombia

Lives and works between London and New Mexico, USA. 

Selected Exhibitions
2025

Migratory Movements, Elizabeth Xi Bauer, London
A PRELUDE ON TWO RHYTHMIC STUDIES: NATURAL AND UNNATURAL SOUNDS, Bi_AM – International Art Biennial of Antioquia and Medellín, Colombia
PRELUDIO DE ARRULLO – DARIÉN, The International Biennial of Art and City, Bogotà, Colombia
El Lenguaje de los Sentidos, 1 Mira Madrid, Spain
Inaugural Exhibition, Elizabeth Xi Bauer, London

2024

BREATH,The 15th Gwangju Biennale, South Korea
EL CRUCE, The New Mexico Museum of Art, Santa Fe, USA

2023

THE THEATRE OF ENERGY: AN EXPLORATION IN THREE ACTS, Museum Anna Nordlander/MAN at Sara Kulturhus in SkelleNeå, Sweden
COMPOSITION IN THREE NOTES / REFLECTIONS ON UNCONSCIOUSNESS (2022) in Odor: Immaterial Sculptures, Tyrolean State Museum – Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck, Austria
SOMETHING GOING ON ABOVE MY HEAD (1999-2021) in Escala: Escultura (1945-2000) Medio siglo de escultura, Fundación Juan March, Madrid, Spain
SOMETHING GOING ON ABOVE MY HEAD (1999-2021) in À bruit secret. Hearing in Art, Museum Tinguely, Basel, Switzerland
SOMETHING GOING ON ABOVE MY HEAD (1999-2021) Tate Collection, Tate Modern, London, UK
É a lama, é a lama, Elizabeth Xi bauer, London

2022

COMPOSITION IN THREE NOTES / REFLECTIONS ON UNCONSCIOUSNESS in Odor. Immaterial Sculptures, Museum für Gegenwartskunst, Seigen (MGKSiegen), in co-operation with Tiroler Landesmuseen Ferdinandeum, Innsbruck, Austria
CORRUPTION AND CONSCIOUSNESS (2020-2022) in Studiotopia: Colliding Epistemes, Centrum Sztuki Współczesnej ŁAŹNIA, Gdańsk, Poland; Bozar Centre for Fine Arts, Brussels, Belgium and Tranzit House, Cluj-Napoca, Romania

2021

NEW CARTOGRAPHIES OF SMELL MIGRATION SITE SANTA FE, New Mexico, USA
NEW CARTOGRAPHIES OF SMELL MIGRATION in To Smell with the Eyes: Images of Scent since the Renaissance, Kunsthalle Bremen, Germany
FOREST OF BALMS, Lost. In Between. Together,
22nd Bienal De Arte Paiz Guatemala, Guatemala City

2020

THE OPERA OF CROSS-POLLINATION: FOR CATHERINE PETITGAS in MECARÕ, Amazonia in the Petitgas Collection, MO.CO (Montpellier Contemporain), Montpellier, France

2019

FABLES OF THE WIND – SWARM WELCOME, Tårngade Water Tower, Struer, Denmark
THE OPERA OF CROSS-POLLINATION, Intonal Festival 2019, Malmö, Sweden
GEOPOLITICS OF NATURE, Espaivisor Gallery, Valencia, Spain
A GIFT TO SVALBARD, Vinkelstasjonen, Longyearbyen on Spitsbergen Island, Svalbard archipelago (Arctic), Norway

2018

KNOWLEDGE AND IGNORANCE in FLORA ars+natura, Dulce Tumaco, Bogotá, Colombia
THE OPERA OF CROSS-POLLINATION, 1st Riga International Biennial of Contemporary Art (RIBOCA1), Riga, Latvia

2017

EQUATIONS, CAAM (Centro Atlántico de Arte Moderno), Las Palmas Gran Canarias, Spain
SCENARIO IN CONSTRUCTION, Public sculpture on a roundabout (Calle 19, Carrera 3), Bogotá, Colombia

2016

CONDUCTOR, SYMPHONY FOR A MUTE BIRD
in Todo o Património é Poesia, Centro de Arte e Cultura, Fundação Eugénio de Almeida, Évora, Portugal
TRILOGY FOR THREE TIMBRES, MUAC (Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo), Mexico City, Mexico

2015

CALUMNY, in Messages from a New America,
10th Mercosul Biennial, Porto Alegre, Brazil
SOMETHING GOING ON ABOVE MY HEAD, BP Spotlight, Tate Britain, London
CONFESION, Ocupación, Colatera, 12th Bienal de La Habana. Estudio de Los Carpinteros, La Habana, Cuba
CONFESSION, in The Smell of War, Castle De Lovie, Poperinge, Belgium
GARLIC SOAP in Belle Haleine – The scent of art [Der Duft der Kunst] Museum Tinguely, Basel, Switzerland

2014

TRANSITION, in Here Today, The Sorting Office, London, UK
ANESTESIA, 1st Bienal Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo Cartagena de Indias, Colombia

2013

A LABORATORY OF CYNICAL PERCEPTION, Henrique Faria Fine Art, New York, USA
THE LIBRARY OF CYNICISM, Chelsea Space, London
DARFUR, in Audio-festival Helicotrema, Museum for Contemporary Art, Rome (MACRO), Roma, Italy
VESPER, in Cantos Cuentos Colombianos, Daros Latinamerica Collection, Casa Daros, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil

2012

MARTINETE, in The Deep of the Modern, Manifesta 9 Genk, Waterschei, Genk, Belgium
FLYING GLASSHOUSE WITH AN AQUARIUM INSIDE, Galerie Coucou, Kassel, Germany
ACTION VERSUS JUSTIFICATION/IWUANA
in Who More Sci-Fi Than Us, contemporary art from the Caribbean, Kunsthal KAdE Amersfoort, Netherlands
FROGS/AMBIGUITY AND AMPHIBIAN in Soundworks | Bruce Nauman’s Days, ICA, London, UK

2011

ESCENARIO PARA TRES CIRCUNSTANCIAS: A, B, C
in MDE11, Salón de Fundición del Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín (Mamm), Medellin, Colombia
MARTINETE in Essays on Geopoetics (Ensaios de Geopoética), 8th Mercosur Biennial (8a Bienal do Mercosul), Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil
UNDER THE HORIZON, in XVIII Rohkunstbau: Macht, Schloss Marquardt (Marquardt Palace), Potsdam, Germany
PERCEPTIONS IN BALANCE, in Works on paper
Nuartlink Gallery, Westport, CT, USA
EQUILIBRIUM, in New Narrative, Digital Art Center (DAC), Taipei, Taiwan
EQUILIBRIUM in Robert Mapplethorpe Night Work, Alison Jacques, London, UK

2010

EQUILIBRIUM, Espaivisor Gallery, Valencia, Spain
EQUILIBRIUM, in Daydreaming with… James Lavelle, Haunch of Venison, London, UK
ACTION VERSUS JUSTIFICATION/IWUANA in Utrópicos, 31st Bienal de Arte de Pontevedra, Pontevedra, Spain
SOMETHING GOING ON ABOVE MY HEAD in Al calor del pensamiento. Obras de la Daros Latinamerica Collection, Sala de Arte Santander, Fundación Banco Santander, Madrid

2009

DARFUR, Performa 09 Pandora’s Sound Box, White Box, New York, US
SURROUNDED IN TEARS Nuit Blanche 09 Toronto, Canada
THE FOUNTAIN, IV Biennale de Jafre Cataluna, Spain
TEN NOTES FOR A HUMAN SYMPHONY, 2nd Thessaloniki Biennale, Thessaloniki, Greece
SOMETHING GOING ON ABOVE MY HEAD, Pallant House Gallery, Chichester, UK
SOMETHING GOING ON ABOVE MY HEAD, Whitechapel Art Gallery, London

2008

SOMETHING GOING ON ABOVE MY HEAD, 41 Salon Nacional Cali, Colombia
SOUFFLE, The Gallery, Sketch, London
SOUFFLE, Medition biennale, Poznan, Poland
SMELLSCAPE III, Odor Limits, Esther M. Klein Gallery, Philadelphia, USA
VESPER, Fondation Clement, Martinique
CALUMNY and TEARS, Musee d’Art de Jolivette Quebec
SOMETHING GOING ON ABOVE MY HEAD, Festival de Lanaudiere Jolieve Quebec
DIVERSION END, Product, Varna, Bulgaria

2007

CALUMNY and DARFUR, Fri-Art Fribourg, Switzerland
CALUMNY, Marian Goodman Gallery, Paris
VESPER, Museum of Contemporary Art, Sydney
DARFUR, 2nd. Moscow Biennale. Special project ‘We are the future’, Moscow, Russia
SURROUNDED IN TEARS, Telefonica Buenos Aires, Negatec Buenos Aires, Argentina
DARFUR ‘The dog barks, but it makes no difference to the Camel’, Madrid Abierto, Madrid, Spain
CALUMNY, Sheffield Museum, Abstraction: extracting from the World, Sheffield, UK

2006

DARFUR, Urp! Dieci posizioni tra pubblico e privato, Cagliari, Italy
SMELLSCAPE, Museum Science Oxford, UK
SURROUNDED IN TEARS, Kunstverein Freiburg-Invisible Worlds, Switzerland
SMELLSCAPE, Around the World in Eighty Days, South London Gallery, UK

2005

SOMETHING GOING ON ABOVE MY HEAD, 51st Venice Biennial Jardin-Palazzo Franche, Venice, Italy
VESPER, Daros Collection Cantos Cuentos Colombianos, Zurich
VESPER, Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland

2004

SOMETHING GOING ON ABOVE MY HEAD Haunch of Venison Animals London (cat.)
SURROUNDED IN TEARS III, Tate Liverpool Biennial (with Jasper Morrison & Michael Nyman). Liverpool, UK
VESPER, Sound–Smell, Shanghai Biennale 2004, Techniques of the Visible, Shanghai, China (cat.)
E2 7SD Sound Sculpture The Place Prize,(Choreographer Rafael Bonachela), (First prize) The Place, London, UK
SOMETHING GOING ON ABOVE MY HEAD, Daros Collection: Cantos Cuentos Colombianos, Zurich (cat.)

2003

SOMETHING GOING ON ABOVE MY HEAD, The Power Plant, Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto, Canada (cat.)
VESPER, II Bienal de Lanzarote: El viaje inú_l Arrecife, Spain (cat.)
VESPER, VIII Bienal de La Habana: El arte con la vida, La Habana, Cuba (cat.)
ESQUENOMEOYENOESQUENOMEVEN, VIII Bienal de La Habana, XEspacio Aglu_nador La Habana, Cuba
VESPER, VTO Gallery London, UK
SOMETHING GOING ON ABOVE MY HEAD, Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofia Madrid, Spain
VESPER, The Place, (choreographer Rafael Bonachela), London, UK

2002

SOMETHING GOING ON ABOVE MY HEAD, AfricAméricA Port–au– Prince, Haïti
PROVOKES / EVOKES (with Jasper Morrison), Artlab Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London, UK (cat.)

2001

PARA MAÑANA TENDREMOS UN DIA NUBLADO, Sinfonía anal audi_va.Tercer Fes_val, Internacional de Arte Sonoro México D.F., Mexico
SOMETHING GOING ON ABOVE MY HEAD, Tirana Biennale, Tirana Albania (cat.)
WHO CLEAN WHOM, Ventana. Office in Madrid, Madrid, Spain

2000

ALGAE GARDEN, Ludwig Forum für Interna_onale Kunst, Con_nental Shi, Aachen, Germany (cat.)
SOMETHING GOING ON ABOVE MY HEAD, 12th-century Church of Gamla Uppsala, Sweden

1999

SOMETHING GOING ON ABOVE MY HEAD, ExTeresa Arte Actual, Cartucho, México D.F., Mexico

1998

SOMETHING GOING ON ABOVE MY HEAD, Whitechapel Art Gallery London, UK
FROM WITHIN, Juliet Gallery, Trieste, Italy (cat.)

1996

BAJANDO CAYENDO, V Bienal de Arte de Bogotá, MAMBO (Museo de Arte Moderno), Bogotá, Colombia (cat.)
FAMILIARES ANONIMOS [ANONYMOUS RELATIVES] in Nuevos nombres. La lógica de los sentidos, Biblioteca Luis Ángel Arango, Bogotá, Colombia (cat.)

1995

CLEANAWAY, in Postscript, Lisson Gallery, London, UK
GARLIC SOAP, in Ideal Standard Summertime, Lisson Gallery, London, UK
MEMORY SKIP – WHO CLEANS WHOM? | THE SOUND OF SMELL, Museum of Installation, London, UK (cat. with CD)

1994

Goldsmiths’ College MA Show, London, UK

Awards & Residencies
2018

Golden Pear, Art & Olfaction Awards 

2015

Public commission Award for the city of Bogotá, Colombia

2011

First prize at the 2011 Bienal de Cuenca, Ecuador

Collections
CH

Daros Latinamerica, Zurich

UK

Tate Modern Collection, London
The Collection Catherine Petitgas, London

US

New Mexico Museum of Art, New Mexico