Gabriel Chaile (1985, San Miguel de Tucumán, Argentina) lives and works between Buenos Aires and Lisbon. He studied Fine Art at the National University of Tucumán. In 2009, he was awarded a scholarship by Fundación YPF, which led to his participation in the first edition of the Artists Program launched by University Torcuato Di Tella. In 2010, he was selected to participate at Lipac, an art program by Centro Cultural Ricardo Rojas. He attended several artist residencies including the Callao Monumental, Peru; SENS and URRA; Buenos Aires. In 2022, he was awarded the Konex Award for Fire Art. He also received a mention for the Klemm Prize 2015 and was nominated for the 1st Itaú Cultural
Award in 2010.
Gabriel Chaile works between the fields of anthropology, religion and art. His work is rooted in the indigenous cultures of Northeast Argentina, aiming to reconstruct and continue the lineage of his culture developing upon a theory that Chaile calls “the genealogy of form”. He refers to himself as a “communicator of images”, which he finds through contextual observations, acting as a visual anthropologist in the way indigenous forms and materials have survived time and denote resistance, such as the clay oven or the common pot. Working frequently with natural elements such as adobe, mud and metal, Chaile weaves stories that readdress and revitalize the tales of his ancestors and his community, integrating the ritualistic and communal significance of food and public spaces into his practice.
In 2022, he participated in The Milk of Dreams, the 59th Venice Biennale curated by Cecilia Alemani. His work has also been exhibited at the BIENNALE GHERDËINA ∞ PERSONES PERSONS, Ortisei; Bienal de Arte Contemporânea de Coimbra, Coimbra; 5th New Museum Triennial, New York; Museum of Modern Art of Buenos Aires (MAMBA); Art Basel Cities: Buenos Aires; Centro Cultural San Pablo T, Tucumán; Centro Cultural Recoleta, Buenos Aires; National Fund of Arts, Buenos Aires; Espacio Tucumán, Buenos Aires; Centro Cultural Borges, Buenos Aires; New Energy Museum of Contemporary Art (the Ene), Buenos Aires; New Museum Triennal, New York and at Foundation Thalie, Brussels. In2019, ChertLüdde presented the first solo exhibition of Gabriel Chaile in Europe, titled Esta canción ya tuvo aplausos.
In 2020, the Museum of Modern Art of Buenos Aires (MAMBA) published the first catalogue of Gabriel Chaile, featuring the exhibition Patricia, along with other major projects produced by the artist in the last years.
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Portrait of Gabriel Chaile
Photo: Alex Krotkov. Courtesy: Meridiano