Francis Alÿs

Francis Alÿs, Age Piece series, 1982–present. Installation view at Victoria Gallery & Museum, Liverpool Biennial 2018. Photo: Thierry Bal

Francis Alÿs, Age Piece (Age 29, Age 30, Age 32), 1982–present. Installation view at Victoria Gallery & Museum, Liverpool Biennial 2018. Photo: Mark McNulty

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Francis Alÿs (b. 1959, Antwerp, Belgium) lives and works in Mexico City. Alÿs originally trained as an architect, but it was the confrontation with issues of urbanisation and social unrest in his new country of adoption, Mexico, that inspired his decision to become a visual artist. He consistently directs his distinct poetic and imaginative sensibility towards anthropological and geopolitical concerns centred around observations of, and engagements with, everyday life, which he has described as "a sort of discursive argument composed of episodes, metaphors, or parables". His multifaceted projects include public actions, installations, video, paintings and drawings. 

In Victoria Gallery & Museum, Francis Alÿs presents a selection of postcard-size paintings from the 1980s to today under the title Age Piece. Executed in the tradition of classic plein air painting, these works allude to the condition of global tourism in the contemporary art scene. Many of the paintings were done while scouting new locations for future film projects, often in conflict zones such as Israel and Palestine, Afghanistan and Iraq.

Recent exhibitions include Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto, Canada (2017); Museo Tamayo Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, Mexico (2015); Museo d'Arte Contemporanea Donna Regina Napoli, Italy (2014); dOCUMENTA (13), Kassel, Germany (2012); Museum of Contemporary Art, Tokyo, Japan (2013); MoMA, New York, USA (2011); Tate Modern, London, UK (2010); and Irish Museum of Modern Art, Dublin, Ireland (2010).

Francis Alÿs at Liverpool Biennial 2018

Age Piece series, 1982-present
Oil/encaustic on linen/wood/plywood/canvas
Exhibited at Victoria Gallery & Museum