Lisson Gallery Artist Pedro Reyes Discusses Evolution of Stone Carving Practice in Mexico City
Pedro Reyes began stone carving after gaining recognition as a conceptual artist and relocated with his family to Coyoacán in Mexico City in 2014. He built a studio beside his home in the former quarry district and works with locally sourced volcanic stone. Reyes produces abstract sculptures that combine Mesoamerican motifs with influences from Brancusi and Noguchi, titling the works in Nahuatl. He presented several new examples at Lisson Gallery in New York last fall.
The Signal
The move to hand carving in a guild-style studio signals Reyes's resistance to automated production methods and underscores the continuity between his earlier participatory projects and current sculptures. Collectors and curators can view the work as an extension of his social practice rather than a break from it, with the emphasis on manual labor offering a distinct market position within contemporary sculpture.
- Artists: Pedro Reyes
- Galleries: Lisson Gallery
- Locations: New York, Mexico City
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