Francis Alys Biography
Francis Alÿs was born in Antwerp, Belgium in 1959.
After attending the Faculty of Architecture in Venice, in 1986 he moved to Mexico City.
Alÿs is the author of works ranging from video to performance, from drawing to animation, from painting to photography. Fundamental in the artistic path of Francis Alÿs is his being a wanderer, a traveler who investigates society by highlighting its values and contradictions, always with a perspective other than the official and canonical one, and always with coherence between his artistic projects and his condition of life.
Alÿs, who sees each of his paintings as a performance, regularly involves Mexican painters, as in the case of Untitled (Man/Woman with shoe on the head) where the artist painted a small picture, a sign painter from Mexico City because he he then created larger versions with the possibility of reproducing them in unlimited copies. His intention is to challenge the idea of an original work of art and its real market value.
Among the institutions that have exhibited his works we remember: Wiels, Brussels (2010-2011); Tate Modern, London (2010); AiM Biennale (Marrakech International Biennial of the Arts); The Renaissance Society, Chicago (2008); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2007); MALBA, Buenos Aires (2006); Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg; Musée d'Art Contemporain, Avignon (2004); MoMA, New York (2002, 2011) and Or Gallery, Vancouver, Canada (1998). His traveling exhibition of images of Santa Fabiola was presented in London, New York and Los Angeles. Alÿs participated in the Venice Biennale in 1999, 2001 and 2007 and at the Carnegie International in 2004.
Today he lives and works in Mexico City.
