At a glance
From an altered Citroën to toilet paper, gold leaf and planetary geometries, Gabriel Orozco transforms ordinary materials into playful reflections on time, movement and the universe.
Meet the artist
Why go
Bringing together approximately 200 new and existing works, Chronotopic is one of the most substantial presentations of Gabriel Orozco’s work in London for decades.
You'll see
- Sculpture, painting, photography, assemblage and works on paper
- Pieces spanning Orozco’s career from the early 1990s to 2026
- Everyday materials ranging from tissue and toilet paper to tempera and gold leaf
- Circles, rotations and game-like structures used to connect objects across time and space
- Major works never previously exhibited in the UK
Don't miss
La DS (Cornaline). By removing the central section of a Citroën DS and reconstructing the remaining halves, Orozco turns an icon of modern industrial design into something narrow, improbable and almost extraterrestrial.
Also look for the recurring circles and rotations. They are not merely decorative motifs but navigational devices connecting games, bodies, planetary systems and different models of time.
Artlovers Tip
Highly recommended—one of London’s essential contemporary-art exhibitions this autumn.
The exhibition is intellectually ambitious but also playful, visual and often quietly humorous. It is worth seeing even if conceptual art is not normally your territory.
Do not approach the exhibition as a linear retrospective. Move between works and look for visual echoes—circles, grids, movement, repetition and altered everyday objects. The exhibition makes more sense as a constellation than as a timeline.
Combine it with a visit to the Gabriel Orozco Garden at South London Gallery, created in 2016 and celebrating its tenth anniversary during the exhibition.
Inside the exhibition
The title combines the Greek words chronos—time—and topos—place. Conceived as a journey or “chrono-nautical log,” the exhibition explores how artworks move through different locations, cultures and historical moments, acquiring new associations along the way.
It also marks three milestones in Orozco’s relationship with London: ten years since the opening of his South London Gallery garden, twenty years since his first White Cube exhibition and thirty years since his solo presentation at the ICA.
About Gabriel Orozco
Born in Xalapa, Mexico, in 1962, Gabriel Orozco is one of the most influential conceptual artists of his generation. His highly mobile practice developed outside the idea of a fixed studio and embraces sculpture, photography, drawing, painting, installation and intervention.
Orozco frequently begins with an object or situation encountered in everyday life—a bicycle, a car, a ball of clay, a fruit or a pattern left in the street. Through small but precise transformations, he uncovers unexpected connections between chance and order, humour and philosophy, geometry and lived experience.
Gabriel Orozco Chronotopic
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