Gabriel Macotela

(Guadalajara, 1954)

Explorer of disciplines, who has ventured into plastic arts, set design, publishing and music. His particular style, full of dynamism and fluidity distinguishes him. His work has been recognized in collective and individual exhibitions in Paris, Barcelona, Havana, and Belgium. It is included in important collections such as the Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil.

Biography

Macotela is a committed and idealistic artist who is interested in having a positive impact on society. A painter, sculptor, engraver, draftsman, set designer, publisher and musician, Gabriel Macotela was born in Guadalajara, Jalisco in 1954. He studied at INBA’s Esmeralda School of Painting and Sculpture and later he got enrolled in UNAM’s National School of Plastic Arts (San Carlos). He studied under Gilberto Aceves Navarro and was a member of the SUMA group.

He has participated in the Havana, Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires, and Cuenca biennials, where his work has received mentions. He has been recognized with the INBA acquisition prize (1998); the Toy-Art-Object prize at the Museo José Luis Cuevas (1993); a grant from FONCA’s Project and Conversion Promotion Program for the Paper Workshop in Oaxaca (1998) and he was part of the National System of Artistic Creators in 1993 and 1997.

Gabriel Macotela is a maker of things, in his daily work he has invented instruments to respond to his color needs. He has also made several artist books. In 1977 he founded Cocina Ediciones and in 1985 he opened the El Archivero bookstore. In 1996 he participated in Gilberto Aceves Navarro’s mural in Santa María La Ribera.
In 2014, as part of the celebration of his 60 years of life and four decades of experience as a painter, sculptor, engraver, draftsman and set designer, he painted a mural in UNAM’s Faculty of Medicine, wrote a Theater Play known as ‘Silent March’ that was represented at the Leon Trotsky Museum and held the retrospective ‘De la Vida’ at the Galería Machado Arte Espacio.

Macotela maintains a critical dissection of the reality that surrounds him, generally from a decadent point de vue: the relationships between human beings, the world economy, the contradictions of the capitalist system, among other topics, where he confirms himself as an artist committed to his world; his work provides him with the most adequate means to externalize his thoughts.

Distinctions

• Intern of Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte, FONCA, Mexico.
• Cum Laude, I Bienal de Cuenca, Ecuador.
• Acquisition Award, Salón Nacional de Pintura, INBA, Mexico City.
• Second Painting Award, XII Concurso Nacional para Estudiantes de Pintura y Escultura, Aguascalientes, Mexico.