Carmen Argote is a multidisciplinary artist who often points to the body, class, and economic structures in relation to architecture and personal history. Argote’s practice draws upon their immediate environment and the networks of labor and consumption that mark these spaces. She manifests these connections through drawings, paintings, site-specific sculpture, installation, and performance that directly reference the visual language of abstraction.
Argote (b. 1981, Guadalajara, Mexico) lives and works in Los Angeles and received their MFA in 2007 from the University of California, Los Angeles, where they also received their BFA in 2004. Selected solo exhibitions include: the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2023); Museum of Contemporary Art, San Diego (2022); Primary, Nottingham, UK (2021); Visual Arts Center, University of Texas, Austin (2020); New Museum, New York (2019); PAOS, Guadalajara, Mexico (2019); Ballon Rouge Collective, Istanbul, Turkey (2019) and New York (2018); Instituto de Visión, Bogotá, Colombia (2018); Panel LA, Los Angeles (2017); Adjunct Positions Gallery, Los Angeles (2015); MAK Center for Art and Architecture, Los Angeles (2015); Human Resources, Los Angeles (2014); and Vincent Price Art Museum, Los Angeles (2013). Selected group exhibitions include: Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery, Los Angeles (2024), Aspen Art Museum, Aspen (2023); Hill Art Foundation, New York (2022); Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2021); Liebaert Projects, Kortrijk, BE (2021); Perth Institute of Contemporary Arts, Perth, WA; SculptureCenter, New York (2019); Hammer Museum, Los Angeles (2018); Orange County Museum of Art, Santa Ana (2017); Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Los Angeles (2017); Ballroom Marfa (2017); and Denver Art Museum (2017). Public art commissions have included Artist Reflections on Public Monuments and Public Space, Illuminate LA, Los Angeles (2022); Workbook/Notebook, Armory Center for the Arts at La Casita, Pasadena (2017); and Metro Expo Line (17th St/Santa Monica College Station), Santa Monica (2016).
Argote is the recipient of the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Independent Master Artist Award (2024).City of Los Angeles Cultural Trailblazer Award (2023); the Fellows of Contemporary Art Award (2020); the Louis Comfort Tiffany Foundation Award (2019); the Artadia Los Angeles Award (2019); Artist Community Engagement Grant from the Rema Hort Mann Foundation (2015); Nancy Graves Foundation Artist Grant (2018); and awarded a California Community Foundation Fellowship for Visual Artists (2013). They are represented by Commonwealth and Council, Los Angeles, California, and serve as co-chair of the Artist Council at the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.
Argote’s work is in the collections of Hammer Museum, Los Angeles; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; and Museum of Latin American Art, Long Beach.
Argote has been a visiting artist at: Art Center College of Art and Design, Buckinghamshire New University, California State University Long Beach, Otis College of Art and Design, Princeton University, Southern California Institute of Architecture, University of California Los Angeles, University of California Santa Barbara, University of Texas Austin, University of Texas Rio Grande, and University of Southern California.
