Yoshua Okón was born in Mexico City in 1970 where he currently lives. His work, like a series of near-sociological experiments executed for camera, blends staged situations, documentation, and improvisation and questions habitual perceptions of reality and truth, selfhood and morality. In 2002 he received an MFA from UCLA with a Fulbright scholarship. His solo exhibitions include: Saló Island, UC Irvine, Irvine; Piovra, Kaufmann Repetto, Milan; Poulpe, Mor Charpentier, Paris; Octopus, Cornerhouse, Manchester and Hammer Museum, Los Angeles and SUBTITLE, Städtische Kunsthalle, Munich. His group exhibitions include: Antes de la resaca, MUAC, Mexico City; Incongruous, Musee Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne; Amateurs, CCA Wattis, San Francisco; Laughing in a Foreign Language, Hayward Gallery, London; Adaptive Behavior, New Museum, New York and Mexico City; PS1, MOMA, NY and Kunstwerke, Berlin. His work is included in the collection of Tate Modern, Hammer Museum, LACMA, Colección Jumex and MUAC, among others. Okón's work Oracle (2015) was on view at Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (UMOCA).
This ART 158 lecture series event took place March 2, 2016, in the University of Utah Art Building, Salt Lake City, UT. Made possible through the generous support of the Carmen Morton Christensen Endowment, the University of Utah Department of Art & Art History, the College of Fine Arts, and ASUU.
