José León Cerrillo is a multifaceted artist who explores the possibilities and contradictions of thinking about genuine abstraction through a wide range of media, from printed posters to sculpture, installations and performance. Often using language – a system of meaning with inherent flaws and implied power structures – as a starting point and drawing from different sources (graphic ideologies, psychoanalytic theory, geometric abstraction…) he also works from simple geometrical systems and reinvents the symbols and iconography of modernism and constructivism. His objects, sculptures and installations disturb the space in which they are presented, echoing its architecture and at the same time deconstructing it.

The New Psychology no 9 is a sculpture constructed from coloured metal frames that shift between actual
planes and a drawing in space. Representative of Cerrillo’s formal approach, it is a challenging investigation into perception and interpretation.


José León Cerrillo (born 1976) lives and works in Mexico City. He received his BFA from the School of Visual Arts and MFA from Columbia University, both in New York. Recent projects include Okayama Art Summit, curated by Liam Gillick and the Gwangju Biennale, curated by Maria Lind, in 2016, Domaine du Muy, in 2017, “The New Baroque” at Andréhn-Schiptjenko, Stockholm, 2017, “Futura” at joségarcia, mx, in Mérida, Mexico, 2018 and The Commands at Andréhn-Schiptjenko in 2019-2020. His work is to be found in major collections such as Fundación Jumex, Mexico City, Mexico. Ishikawa Foundation, Okayama, Japan, Museo Tamayo, Mexico City, Mexico and Moderna Museet, Stockholm, Sweden to name a few.