The Institute of Contemporary Art, San Diego will inaugurate its Balboa Park gallery with the first California solo show of Mexican artist Gabriel Rico (b. 1980, Lagos de Moreno, Mexico). Trained as an architect, Rico works in post-Surrealist and Arte Povera modes, the radical Italian art movement of the 1960s and 70s in which artists used materials like soil, rags, and twigs. He is celebrated for an experimental, inventive sculptural practice characterized by what he calls mixing seemingly disparate objects alongside coded and personal visual formulas, equations, and philosophical propositions that explore the remnants of the human race, future ruins of our civilization, and 21st century technology. “A fable,” “a post apocalyptic vision,” and what he says is his “riskiest” exhibition to date, Rico will transform the double height galleries with neon, branches, rocks, shells, gems, taxidermy, glass, sand, and augmented reality into a journey that considers “the illusion of a border” between humanity and the natural world. Through a special collaboration with the San Diego Natural History Museum (The Nat), the artist will incorporate taxidermy specimens from the beloved institution’s collection into the exhibition at ICA San Diego and a site-specific installation within The Nat’s ongoing Unshelved exhibition.

September 24, 2021 – January 23, 2022