
A founding member of the Mexican contemporary art scene, Eduardo Terrazas’s career is characterised by a dedication to his work within the fields of architecture, design, museology, urban planning, and art. As a young architect, Terrazas came to prominence as the co-designer of the logo and prevalent design elements for the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. The logo – traced in concentric circles – was inspired by Huichol techniques, and set a precedent for the geometric forms that have come to define the artist’s visual language.
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A founding member of the Mexican contemporary art scene, Eduardo Terrazas’s career is characterised by a dedication to his work within the fields of architecture, design, museology, urban planning, and art.
As a young architect, Terrazas came to prominence as the co-designer of the logo and prevalent design elements for the 1968 Olympic Games in Mexico City. The logo – traced in concentric circles – was inspired by Huichol* techniques, and set a precedent for the geometric forms that have come to define the artist’s visual language.
In the 1970s, Terrazas began experimenting with the formal relationships of geometric elements through drawings. These investigations, combined with the appropriation of elements from Mexican folk art, have resulted in a unique language that navigates both contemporary art and craft traditions.
For Terrazas, the application of craft is an essential ontological process, which he deems particularly poignant for the 21st century. The Huichol yarn technique, whereby coloured yarn is arranged on wax-covered boards, has been adopted by Terrazas not only for its aesthetic properties, but also due to its labour demands, which require absorption in the act, and therefore meditation within the process.
Terrazas first exhibited his work in 1972 at the Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City. The following year was marked with exhibitions at the Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago, Chile and at the Museo Nacional de Arte, La Paz, Bolivia. He was included in the Biennale de Paris at the Musée d’Art Moderne de la Ville de Paris in 1969 and in Graphics 1: New Dimensions at the Museum of Modern Art, New York in 1970. Most recently, his work has been included in Poule! at the Fundación Jumex, Mexico City in 2012, and in the Sharjah Biennial II in 2013. In 2015, Terrazas presented solo exhibitions of his work at the Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, and at Timothy Taylor, London.
Following a bachelor’s degree in architecture from the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México in 1958, Terrazas was awarded a scholarship for a Masters in Architecture at Cornell University, New York, which he completed in 1960. In 1962 he gained his certification in Prefabricated Architecture from the Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâtiment, Paris. Terrazas has held positions as a lecturer in Architectural Design at Columbia University, New York from 1964 to 1965; the University of California, Berkeley from 1969 to 1970; and Cidoc, Cuernavaca in 1971.
Eduardo Terrazas was born in 1936 in Guadalajara, Mexico.
*Folk art and handcrafts produced by the Huichol people, who live in the states of Jalisco, Durango and Nayarit in Mexico.
1936 | Born in Guadalajara, Jalisco, Mexico |
1958 | BA in Architecture, Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México |
1960 | MA in Architecture, Cornell University, Ithaca, USA |
1962 | Certificate in Prefabricated Architecture, Centre Scientifique et Technique du Bâitment, Paris, France |
1964–65 | Lecturer at Columbia University, New York, USA |
1969–70 | Lecturer at University of California, Berkeley, USA |
1971 | Lecturer at CIDOC, Cuernavaca, Mexico |
2021 | Eduardo Terrazas: Cosmic Variations, Timothy Taylor, New York, NY, USA |
2019 | Eduardo Terrazas - Cosmos, Museo Experimental El Eco, Mexico City, Mexico. |
Independent: Eduardo Terrazas, Timothy Taylor, New York, NY, USA | |
2018 | Cosmos within a cosmos, Timothy Taylor, New York, NY, USA |
2017 | Simplicity is the Glory of Expression, Nils Stærk, Copenhagen, Denmark |
2016 | Eduardo Terrazas - Con tan sólo mirar…, Proyectos Monclova, Mexico City, Mexico |
2015 | Eduardo Terrazas, Timothy Taylor, London, UK |
Ways of Perception, Nils Staerk, Copenhagen, Denmark | |
Segunda Naturaleza, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, Mexico City, Mexico | |
2013 | Constellations, Almine Rech Gallery, Paris, France |
The Predicament of Mankind, Nils Staerk, Copenhagen, Denmark | |
2012 | 1.1.4, Proyectos Monclova, Mexico City, Mexico |
Posibilidades de una estructura, Casa Luis Barragán, Mexico City, Mexico | |
2011 | Posibilidades de una estructura, Museo de Arte de Sinaloa (MASIN), Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico |
1987 | Multiplicaciones, in collaboration with Iván Chermayeff, Mobil Oil Company de México, Mexico City, Mexico |
Museo de lo cotidiano: Ejercicios sobre la mirada, Galería OMR, Mexico City, Mexico | |
Museo de lo cotidiano: Ejercicios sobre la mirada, Instituto Cultural Mexicano, San Antonio, Texas, USA | |
Museo de lo cotidiano: Ejercicios sobre la Mirada, Instituto Cultural Mexicano, El Paso, Texas, USA | |
1975 | “Sin saber que existias y sin poderte explicar”, in collaboration with Arnaldo Coen, Biblioteca Benjamin Franklin, Mexico City, Mexico |
1974 | Eduardo Terrazas, Fundación Eugenio Mendoza, Caracas, Venezuela |
Eduardo Terrazas: Paintings and “Tablas”, Tunnel Gallery, New York, USA | |
Eduardo Terrazas: Tablas, Casa de la Cultura, Maracay, Venezuela | |
1973 | Eduardo Terrazas: Tablas, Knoll International, Paris, France |
Eduardo Terrazas: Tablas, Museo Nacional de Bellas Artes, Santiago de Chile, Chile | |
Eduardo Terrazas: Tablas, Suzy Langlois Gallery, Paris, France | |
Eduardo Terrazas: Tablas, Museo Nacional de Arte, La Paz, Bolivia | |
1972 | Eduardo Terrazas: Tablas, Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Mexico |
2022 | Proyectos Monclova, Art Basel Hong Kong, Hong Kong |
2019 | ILACIONES, Timothy Taylor, New York, USA |
Downtown Painting (presented by Alex Katz), Peter Freeman, Inc., New York, USA | |
2018 | Abstracción Textil | Textile Abstraction, Casa Riegner, Bogotá, Colombia |
The way you read a book is different to how I tell you a story, Jahn und Jahn, Munich, Germany | |
Saber Acomodar, Art and Workshops of Jalisco 1915-Now, ASU Art Museum, Phoenix, AZ, USA | |
2017 | Margen-Borde-Orilla, PÁRAMO, Guadalajara, Mexico |
Welcome Too Late, Kunsthal Charlottenborg, Copenhagen, Denmark | |
Crooked Bazaar, Proyectos Monclova, Mexico City, Mexico | |
Lecturas de un territorio fracturado, Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico | |
2016–17 | A los artistas del mundo. El Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende, México/Chile 1971-1977, Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende (MSSA), Santiago, Chile |
Nierika, the Lilly archive, Centro de la Imagen, Mexico City, Mexico | |
2016 | Folklore planétaire, curated by Arnauld Pierre, Galerie Frank Elbaz, Paris, France |
Architecture of Colour: The Legacy of Luis Barragan, Timothy Taylor 16x34, New York, USA | |
Barragán Fetichista, Estancia FEMSA, Casa Luis Barragán, Mexico | |
Eye Attack. Op Art and Kinetic Art 1950-1970, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Denmark | |
A los artistas del mundo. El Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende, México/Chile 1971-1977, MUAC Museo Univsersitario Arte Contemporáneo (UNAM), Mexico City, Mexico | |
2015 | Latin America in Construction: Architecture 1955–1980, MoMA, New York, USA |
10ª Bienal do Mercosul, Porto Alegre, Brasil | |
Now? Now!, Biennial of the Americas, Museum of Contemporary Art, Denver, CO, USA | |
2014 | Platform, curated by Nicolas Trembley, Almine Rech Gallery, Brussels, Belgium |
Impulse, Reason, Sense, Conflict. Abstract Art from the Ella Fontanals-Cisneros Collection, The Cisneros Fontanals Art Foundation, Miami, USA | |
2013 | Sharjah Biennial 11, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates |
2012 | Poule!, Fundación Jumex Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, Mexico Casa Estudios Chile, Luis Barragán, Mexico City, Mexico |
Exposición conmemora los 40 años, Museo de la Solidaridad, Chile | |
2011 | Espacio flexible, La Quiñonera, Mexico City, Mexico |
México: política y poética, Fine Arts Gallery, San Francisco State University, San Francisco, California, USA | |
2008 | Diseñando México 68: una identidad olímpica, Museo de Arte Moderno, Mexico City, Mexico |
2002 | ABCDF, portraits d’une ville, Institut du Mexique, Paris, France |
1973 | Young artists ’73, Union Carbide, New York, USA |
1971 | Primera Bienal Americana de Artes Graficas, Museo de Arte Moderno, La Tertulia, Cali, Colombia |
1970 | Graphics 1 New Dimensions, MoMA, New York, USA |
Exposición CFE 70, Comisión Federal de Electricidad, Mexico City, Mexico | |
1969 | Sixième biennale de Paris, Musée d'art moderne de la ville de Paris, Paris, France |
1968 | Word and Image: Posters from the Collection of the Museum of Modern Art, MoMA, New York, USA |
MUAC - Museo Universitario Arte Contemporáneo, Mexico City, Mexico |
Museo Amparo, Puebla, Mexico |
Fundación-Colección Jumex, Mexico City, Mexico |
Museo de la Solidaridad Salvador Allende, Santiago, Chile |
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, IL |
Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, MA |
MOMA - Museum of Modern Art, New York, NY |
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