Artists    
 
Raul Ortega Ayala’s art focuses on varied habitual themes, which he researches through a detailed and absorptive process for approximately a year. Once this process of exploration is over he uses the materials and experiences that he encounters to produce a group of what the artist calls, souvenirs, or components of a series. Themes such as, leisure, the office world, food and gardening have been or are being explored by the artist. One such series is the Bureaucratic Sonata, culminated in his solo exhibition at Rokeby in 2006 and more recently An Ethnography of Gardening was seen at both the Museo Experimental El Eco, Mexico City and Rokeby.

Through positioning himself as a practicing gardener within a team employed in both private and public spaces in London Ortega Ayala covertly undertook research into the world of gardening. Enabling him to take this culture as his subject he embarked upon an interdisciplinary and contextual approach to fieldwork in the everyday. The series of work that stems from the artists time as a practicing gardener is spilt into groups such as, The Public and Private, From the Imaginary to the Monstrous and Control and Compartmentalization; referring to the artists experiences and past histories associated with gardening as a cultural phenomenon.

Mexican born Ortega currently lives and works in Mexico City, he completed his MA at Glasgow School of Art in 2003, he has exhibited both in the UK and internationally, with solo exhibitions both in London and Mexico City.

More images are available on the exhibitions page.

Raul Ortega Ayala is represented by Rokeby.
  
 
  Biography

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Education:
Master in Fine Arts, Glasgow School of Art combined with Hunter College, New York
Degree in Visual Arts, E.N.P.E.G. (National School of Painting, Sculpture and Print) “La Esmeralda”, National Center for the Arts, Mexico
Philosophy, Faculty of Philosophy, National Autonomous University of Mexico
Cultural Sciences, University of the Cloister of Sor Juana
Painting, E.N.P.E.G. (National School of Painting, Sculpture and
Print) “La Esmeralda”, National Center for the Arts, Mexico

Solo Exhibitions:
An Ethnography on Gardening, Rokeby Gallery, London (forthcoming)
Site specific work, Butchers, London (forthcoming)
An Ethnography on Gardening, Museo Experimental El Eco, Mexico City
Raul Ortega Ayala, The Economist Plaza, Contemporary Art Society Commission
Bureaucratic Sonata, Rokeby Gallery, London
3 site specific works from the Bureacratic Sonata Series, Arts Depot, London
Risk, Do not disturb, a project in combination with Jemima Burrill, Hiscox Art Projects, London
Speculations on wood & circumstance, Vitro Corporation, Mexico City
Natura, Cloister of Sor Juana, Mexico City

Group Exhibitions:
Foodprint, Stroom Den Haag, The Hague
At Your Service, curated by Cylena Simmonds, David Roberts Foundation, Fitrovia, London
It is not a question of knowing whether this interests you but rather of whether you yourself could become more interesting under new conditions of cultural creation., The Frye Museum, Seattle
Contemporary Video, PUNCH Gallery, Seattle
Orange, A festival of Art and Food in Montreal
The acceptance world, Laura Barttlet Gallery, London
Mexico 70, Casa del Lago, Mexico City
Bloc, BowieArt at County Hall, London
ARCO, Enrique Guerrero Gallery, Madrid, Spain
Pilot:1 (International Art Forum), Limehouse Town Hall, London
MEDIUM:FILM, Mariakappel, Hoorn, Holland
inbox : glasgow, Central Gallery, National Centre for the Arts, Mexico
Big Friendly Show, The Chateau, Glasgow
EV+ A, Limerick, Ireland
Rock Candy, Mariakappel, Hoorn, Holland
60 years of art, Central Gallery, National Arts Center, Mexico
de With, Rotterdam
Portobello Film Festival, BowieArt selection, Westbound Studios, London
Scottish Drawing, Xi’an and Beijing, China
Inport: International Video—Performance Art, Estonia
Catch me if you can, National Gallery in Tirana, Albania
Interim Show, Mackintosh & Newberry Gallery, Glasgow
New Contemporaries, Liverpool Biennial, Liverpool
Majority Rules, Free Gallery, Glasgow
New Contemporaries, Barbican, London
Night of 1,000 Drawings, Artists Space, New York
Arte BA, Enrique Guerrero Gallery, Buenos Aires
Chicago Art Fair, Enrique Guerrero Gallery, Chicago
Art in Seville, Enrique Guerrero Gallery, Seville, Spain
Designata, Central Gallery of the National Center for the Arts, Mexico City
Monodimensional Saloon, National Center for the Arts, Mexico City
 
  Raul Ortega Ayala is represented by Rokeby
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  Raul Ortega Ayala
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