Fragmented Typefaces 1-12 is a series of paintings produced by applying several layers of oilstick on the stenciled canvas. The graphic yet pictorial quality of the works is due to fact that the artist decided to experiment with the crossover between typographical text with painting technique. The works present irregular patterns of abstract shapes that are taken from one of Amorales’ encrypted typographic alphabets that has been used on previous projects. The works that include “readable” text, are cancelled by superimposing the abstract shapes. These texts are prose poems written by the artists, which describe autobiographical events that are then partially hidden. The abstract works of chaotic pattern resemble pictographic writing.

These paintings evoke a fragmented sense of meaning that dwells between legibility and illegibility.
Carlos Amorales (1970) is a multidisciplinary artist who explores the limits of language and translation systems to venture into the field of cultural experimentation. He uses graphic production as a tool to develop linguistic structures and alternative working models that allow new forms of interpretation and foster collectivity. In his projects, Amorales examines identity construction processes, proposes a constant re signification of forms present in his work, and provokes a clash between art and pop culture.

His research processes are complex; they are based in an ample repertoire of empirical methodologies to develop extensive projects that conjugate historical, cultural, and personal references. His practice expands to diverse media such as drawing, painting, sculpture, or collage; as well as performance, installation, animation, sound art, film, writing, among other non- traditional formats. He studied visual arts in the Gerrit Rietveld Academie and the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, both in the city of Amsterdam, Netherlands.

The most extensive researches in his work encompass Los Amorales (1996-2001), Liquid Archive (1999-2010), Nuevos Ricos (2004-2009), and a typographic exploration in junction with cinema (2013-present). Between his numerous individual exhibitions, we can mention: Working Tools, MAMM, (Medellin, 2017); Anti Tropicalia, Museo de Arte y Diseño (Costa Rica, 2015); Black Cloud, Power Plant, (Toronto, 2015); El Esplendor Geométrico, Kurimanzutto (México, 2015), Germinal, Museo Tamayo (Mexico City, 2013); Nuevos Ricos, Kunsthalle Fridericianum (Kassel, 2010); Four Animations, Five Drawings and a Plague, Philadelphia Museum of Art (2008); Discarded Spider, Cincinnati Art Center (2008). Some of his most outstanding collective exhibitions comprise: Under the Same Sun. Art From Latin America Today, Guggenheim Museum (New York, 2014); New Perspectives in Latin American Art, MoMA (New York, 2007); Mexico City: An Exhibition About The Exchange Rate of Bodies and Values, MoMA PS1 (New York, 2002); and performances as Amorales vs. Amorales, Centre Georges Pompidou (Paris 2001), SF MoMA (San Francisco, 2003), and Tate Modern (London, 2003).

Additionally he has participated in biennials like Manifesta 9 (Belgium, 2012), Bienal de la Habana (Cuba, 2015 y 2009), Performa (New York, 2007), Berlin Biennial (2001 y 2014), Manif d´art 8 The Québec Biennale 2017, and La Biennale di Venezia (2003 y 2017).

His works are available in international collections such as Museo Tamayo and the Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City: Tate Modern, London; The Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum, New York; Walker Art Center, Minneapolis; Museum Boijmans van Beuningen, Rotterdam; among others.