Morelia, Michoacán, Mexico Exhibition on view through March 1, 2026
The Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Alfredo Zalce (MACAZ) in Morelia, Michoacán, presents Ernesto Ríos: Retrovisión (2000–2025), a career-spanning survey featuring 55 works created over twenty-five years by one of Mexico’s most distinguished multidisciplinary artists. More than a traditional retrospective, Retrovisión examines over two decades of creative practice as a dynamic field of intersections, resonances, and conceptual dialogues, positioning the exhibition as a highlight of the 2026 cultural season.
Ríos earned a master’s degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where interactive media and programming became central to his creative vocabulary
Born in Cuernavaca Morelos in 1975, Ernesto Ríos has cultivated a transdisciplinary practice defined by experimentation, research, and the fluid integration of analogue and digital media. His work traverses art, science, technology, architecture, and linguistics, generating visual systems that translate complex conceptual and scientific structures into poetic, perceptually engaging forms. Ríos earned a master’s degree from the Interactive Telecommunications Program (ITP) at NYU’s Tisch School of the Arts, where interactive media and programming became central to his creative vocabulary, and later completed a PhD in Visual Arts at RMIT University, consolidating a conceptual framework that bridges tactile, material-based processes with digital experimentation. Rather than presenting works chronologically, Retrovisión unfolds as a conceptual and Rather than presenting works chronologically, Retrovisión unfolds as a conceptual and mental labyrinth. Time is treated as elastic: earlier and later works converse across decades, creating moments of surprise, reflection, and resonance. Visitors are invited to pause, retrace their steps, and discover unexpected affinities among media, techniques, and ideas. In contrast to Ríos’s previous exhibition, Códigos, which guided audiences through a zig-zag-shaped spatial narrative, Retrovisiónemphasizes conceptual connections over linear progression, transforming the act of viewing into an active, reflective experience. A central concern in Ríos’s practice is the exploration of visible and invisible systems—from biological networks and ecological processes to digital infrastructures and linguistic grids. The exhibition highlights works that investigate these layers of complexity, revealing the fragility and interconnectivity of human experience in an increasingly networked world. Among the featured pieces, Zoonosis exemplifies this approach: a video installation interweaving art, science, and technology to examine the transmission of disease across species. Through immersive imagery and sound, it invites reflection on the unseen forces shaping perception, interaction, and global interdependence. Ríos’s philosophy of creation centers on what he terms “artistic intelligence”—a holistic mode of working that unites mind, body, and intuition, in contrast to the current trend of AI-generated art. His process often begins with tactile engagement and elemental exploration—earth, fire, water, and air—before extending these experiences through technological experimentation. This integration of materiality and digital processes produces works that resonate simultaneously on physical, conceptual, and poetic levels. Language and ambiguity further activate the viewer’s participation, transforming observation into dialogue and making interpretation a collaborative act. By placing works from diverse periods in conversation, Retrovisión opens new avenues for inquiry, inviting audiences to recognize the extraordinary within everyday phenomena and uncover subtle, previously unnoticed connections. The exhibition reflects Ríos’s sustained interest in systems, perception, and temporality, while affirming his long-standing commitment to experimentation, research, and conceptual rigor. With Retrovisión, Ernesto Ríos reaffirms a career that is both deeply rooted and continually evolving, solidifying his standing as one of Mexico’s most renowned visual artists. The exhibition invites audiences to engage with time, perception, and the systemic forces that shape our world, offering a critically attuned and profoundly contemporary perspective that reflects the enduring significance of his artistic practice.
PHOTOS IN GOOGLE DRIVE:
https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/11WTKT7Ly0PgTXOteRj4pCKh65qJSYiFF?usp=share_link
1975, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico Ernesto Ríos lives and works in Mexico City. His artistic process is continuously enriched by research, experimentation, and systematic production. Through a mixed methodology, Ríos aims to develop new visual reconfigurations and deconstructions of forms, concepts, and symbols, which are interconnected with his personal interpretations of time and space as dynamic, complex, and multidimensional phenomena. With a transdisciplinary vision, he fuses traditional materials with technology, interactivity, and alternative media. He develops his practice through photography, sculpture, drawing, painting, video, Net.art, and interrelated disciplines. His work explores the complex intersections between art, architecture, philosophy, and science. Ernesto Ríos examines labyrinthine elements from both Greek mythology and contemporary visions, including numerical sequences, ancient rituals, and digital and organic viruses. He holds a PhD in Visual Arts (2014) from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT) and a Master’s degree in Interactive Telecommunications (2004-2006) from New York University. He was the first Latin American to win the Siemens-RMIT Visual Arts Prize in Australia (2010). He also received a PhD scholarship (EIPRS) from RMIT University, Melbourne, Australia (2009-2014). Ríos earned a scholarship for his Master’s studies at New York University-Tisch School of the Arts, ITP (2004-2006) in New York. He was awarded the FONCA scholarship for Overseas Studies twice consecutively to complete his Master’s degree at NYU (2004-2005 and 2005-2006). He received a FONCA grant in the category of Artistic Residencies FONCA-ISCP (2003). He was also awarded the FOENCA Young Creators grant from the Institute of Culture of Morelos on three occasions (2000-2001, 1997-1998, and 1994-1995). He has participated in more than seventy group exhibitions and twenty-nine solo exhibitions in museums and galleries in Mexico and abroad, including: 2021 SKULL SARS CoV-2 VIRU$, Museo Morelense de Arte Contemporáneo, Cuernavaca, Morelos, Mexico; 2017 Code_of_the_forest, Roberto Garza Sada Cultural Center, UDEM, N.L. Monterrey, Mexico; and 2000 Disolvencias, Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City, Mexico.
SELECCIÓN DE EXPOSICIONES INDIVIDUALES. SELECTED SOLO EXHIBITIONS 2025 Ernesto Ríos: Retrovisión (2000-2025), Museo de Arte Contemporáneo Alfredo Zalce (MACAZ), Morelia, Michoacán, México. 2025 CÓDIGOS, Galeria Central, Centro de las Artes, San Luis Potosí, México. 2022 ZOONOSIS, Centro Cultural San Pablo, Oaxaca, México. 2021 SKULL SARS CoV-2 VIRU$, Museo Morelense de Arte Contemporáneo, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México. 2020 Geometría Conventual, Museo Exconvento de Tepoztlán, Morelos, México. 2019 Invisible Cities, Mártires de la Conquista, CDMX, México. 2019 Geometrías de Luz, Galería el Laberinto de los Sentidos, Jardines de México, Morelos, México. 2018 Ernesto Ríos: Constelación Dédalo, Museo Güelu, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México. 2018 Ernesto Ríos: Constelación Tempus Fugit, Museo de la Ciudad de Cuernavaca, Morelos, México. 2018 Ernesto Ríos: Constelación ADN, Museo UPAEP, Puebla, México. 2017 Constelaciones, Galería Sismo, CDMX, México. 2017 Code_of_the_forest, Centro Roberto Garza Sada, UDEM, Nuevo León, Monterrey, México. 2016 Piramide, Museo Regional Cuauhnáhuac. Obra del mes. Cuernavaca, Morelos, México. 2014 Maze-Lab, RMIT Design Hub, Melbourne, Australia. 2013 Reconfiguring the Labyrinth, RMIT School of Art Gallery, Melbourne, Australia. 2013 Pyramidal-labyrinths, Anna Pappas Gallery, Melbourne, Australia. 2010 True Beauty, Perth Centre for Photography, Perth, Australia. 2010 Yarra, Gallery Off the Kerb, Melbourne, Australia. 2008 Labrys, Ernesto Ríos, Museo de Arte Contemporáneo, Morelia, México. 2008 Disolvencias, Ex Teresa Arte Actual, CDMX, México. Ernesto Ríos, 2008 El Gran Líder, Gallery C3, Melbourne, Australia. 2004 Gallery Art Resources Transfer, Nueva York, Estados Unidos. 2004 Ernesto Ríos, Fototeca de Cuba, La Habana, Cuba. 2004 Ernesto Ríos, International Studio & Curatorial Program, Nueva York, Estados Unidos. 2000 Disolvencias, Ex Teresa Arte Actual, CDMX, México. 2000 Ernesto Ríos, Museo Robert Brady, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México. 2000 Gallery Anima-Löte, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México. 2000 No estaba muerto, Galería Centro Cultural Jardín Borda, Cuernavaca, Morelos, México. 2000 Disolvencias, Centro de la Imagen, CDMX, México.
SELECCIÓN DE EXPOSICIONES COLECTIVAS: Ha participado en más de 70 exposiciones colectivas en México, España, Brasil, Inglaterra, Francia y otros países, entre las que destacan: 2019 “Latitud, 40 artistas”, Museo Morelense de Arte Contemporáneo, Cuernavaca Mor. México. "Después del Edén" Arte en Cuernavaca, 1974-2014, Curaduría Andrea Torreblanca, Mor. México, 2015 Immigration Museum, Melbourne, Australia, 2015 "Gestos", The Sandpit Contemporary Artspace in St Kilda, Melbourne, Australia, 2014 Immigration Museum, Melbourne, Australia, 2013 "Jamais Vu", Anna Pappas Gallery, Melbourne, Australia, 2013 "Post-apocalyptic", Marenko Art Gallery, Stanford Houston, TX, Estados Unidos. 2012 RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, Australia, 2011 RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, Australia, 2010 Siemens-RMIT Fine Art Awards, Postgraduate Scholarship, RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, Australia, 2009 Diaz Castillo Gallery, Melbourne Australia, 2009 RMIT Gallery, Melbourne, Australia, 2008 NewMediaFest, Digital Media at the "Centre Cultural Valencia", Valencia, Spain, 2007 NetSpace: viaggio nell’arte della Rete Paesaggi elettronici, The MAXXI_National Museum of the XXI Century Arts, Italy, Rome, 2006 Spring Show, Interactive Telecommunications Program, New York, 2006 The Knitting Factory, ITP show, New York, 2005 Live Projections, Diapason Gallery, New York.
E-mail: drernestoriosrios@gmail.com