Leo Marz

Multidisciplinary artist Leo Marz (b. 1979, Zapopan, Mexico) works in traditional and unconventional means of art-making, including drawing, painting, sculpture, video, performance, sound, and installation. Through his art practice, Marz explores the connections between history, technology, objecthood, and subjecthood in modern society. His work examines the fragmentary nature of a world in constant flux and generates environments that encourage viewers to contemplate interconnected and contradictory aspects of life.

By taking fragments from reality and recontextualizing them to form alternate worlds, Marz questions how we create and understand physical and imagined spaces. He elevates his compositions by poetically ascribing them with titles of found text. Whether the environments and references Marz depict are found in media, his own living spaces, or public zones, he abstracts them to create wrinkles in time and space.

In 2024, Marz will participate in two seminal exhibitions: They Stare At You From Billions of Years Ago at Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Monterrey (MARCO) and Pintura contemporánea en México at Museo Amparo (Puebla, Mexico). Marz's most recent museum solo exhibition was The Ancient Incident at Mexico City's Museo Jumex in 2022. His work has also been featured in the Yucatán Biennale, the Emergency Biennale in Chechnya, Palazzo delle Arti Napoli, CCS Hessel Museum of Art at Bard College (Annandale-on-Hudson, NY), Museo de las Américas (Denver, CO), Steve Turner Contemporary (Los Angeles, CA), Espacio Arte Contemporáneo (Montevideo, Uruguay), Museo de Arte Moderno (Mexico City), Museo Universitario de Ciencia y Arte (Mexico City), Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil (Mexico City), Casa del Lago UNAM (Mexico City), and MARCO (Monterrey, Mexico), among others. Marz's work is included in the permanent collection of Fundación M (Mexico City).

Marz is also a prolific curator and educator. Some of these roles include Director of the Arts Center at Universidad de Monterrey (UDEM), Professor at the Monterrey Center for Higher Learning of Design (CEDIM), Artistic Director of Lugar Común, and Curator for the XII Bienal FEMSA (all Monterrey, Mexico). He has lectured at Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez (Juarez City, Mexico), the 2008 American Association of Museums Annual Meeting, and the Peggy Guggenheim Collection (Venice, Italy), among others.

Marz is the recipient of numerous institutional awards including ones from Sistema Nacional de Creadores de Arte (SNCA), Programa Jóvenes Creadores del FONCA, Fundación Jumex, Programa de Estímulo a la Creación y al Desarrollo Artístico (PECDA), and the third edition of Bancomer-MACG Arte Actual.

Leo Marz lives and works in Monterrey, Mexico. He received an MFA in New Media from the Transart Institute for Creative Research and Donau Universität, Krems, Austria (2008). Marz is co-represented by Pequod Co. in Mexico City.