Abraham Cruzvillegas 29 May - 4 Jul 2009 11 Duke Street, St James's

Thomas Dane Gallery is pleased to announce the first exhibition at the gallery by Mexican artist Abraham Cruzvillegas.

Rather than being defined by a particular medium, Cruzvillegas' work can be understood best through his process, which is deeply influenced by his surroundings. Often, this involves a very personal form of research, as the artist explores his own relationship to objects, their making, and the social context from which they emerged.

For a recent exhibition at the CCA in Glasgow, Cruzvillegas again took on a range of roles, examining his family home in Ajusco, Mexico. Ajusco is an area that was initially invaded and developed during a great migration of workers to Mexico City in the 1960s. Many of the inhabitants were former peasants who built their own houses, resulting in a neighbourhood with a unique architecture and a deep sense of community. Cruzvillegas' early life was defined by this community, and his decision to examine the construction of his family home is both a sculptural project and a means of exploring his own origins in material terms. The works for the CCA show, which included video, sculpture, and a group of songs, addressed this history while responding to the more immediate interaction with the landscape, people, and forms found in rural Scotland.

For his show at Thomas Dane Gallery, Cruzvillegas has made a two-screen video work, which combines interviews with each of his parents, a group of sculptures and assemblages, and a set of drawn musical scores, all related by the main spinal concept of Autoconstrucción. This term has been used by Cruzvillegas in his recent projects as a metaphor on improvising while building as an ideological premise, on permanent change, on fragmentary or chaotic thinking and on economic instability.

Abraham Cruzvillegas (b.1968) was born and lives in Mexico City. He has recently completed a residency at Cove Park, Scotland and at the Smithsonian Institute in Washington D.C. as part of the Artist Research Fellowship from the Smithsonian Institute. Cruzvillegas' solo exhibitions include Jack Tilton Gallery, New York; Château de Tours, France; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Oaxaca (MACO), Mexico; Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston, and Museo Universitario de Ciencias y Arte (MUCA), Mexico City. He has participated in the 5th & 10th Havana Biennial; 25th São Paulo Biennial and 50th Venice Biennial. In 2009 he will also have solo shows at REDCAT, Los Angeles and also at CCA Wattis, San Francisco - where he will be in residency from August to December, 2009. His work is currently in a group show at Gasworks, London.