Gabriel Rico: the Discipline of the Cave

The focal point of this new publication on Guadalajara-based artist Gabriel Rico (born 1980) is the work made specifically for his Aspen Art Museum exhibition, The Discipline of the Cave. Collecting fragments of contemporary existence, the sculptor and installation artist masterfully recontextualizes familiar objects and materials, and his new pieces were specifically made in response to the architecture of the museum’s ground floor galleries.

Working in an Arte Povera tradition, Rico juxtaposes found items, neon and taxidermy animals in ways that convey the relationship between humans and the natural environment. Influenced by scientific approaches, geometry and philosophy, the artist creates non-mathematical equations from objects that reflect our fundamental struggle to achieve balance. Through his process of fusing the natural and kitsch, the artist has created a careful arrangement in the AAM Galleries, and Rico’s portrait of contemporary life is reflected in this Aspen Art Press publication.