Adrián Balseca (Quito, Ecuador, 1989) lives and works in Quito.His practice deals with history and the often omitted complexities around economic processes associated with the implementation and consolidation of Modernity’s paradigm. In his pieces these struggles are underlined by implementing mythologic narratives that refer to the extraction of natural resources, and traditional notions of progress and development in capitalistic culture. The research process behind ach project ultimately reveals hidden history in the folds of latin american politics, dismantling colonial symbologies. The analysis of specific social-environmental agendas within “extractivist” dynamics along modern history has conceived a series of projects in a wide range of formats such as film, site specific installation, sculptural objects, and photography, bringing to life ironic allegories on late capitalism. 

Solo exhibitions include: Routing Rubber, Canal Projects, New York (2024); Plantasia Oil Company, Casa do Sertanista / Museu da Cidade de São Paulo, São Paulo (2021); Plantasia Oil Co., N24 Galeria de Arte, Quito (2021); The Unbalanced Land, Madragoa, Lisbon (2019); Estela blanca, Ginsberg Galeria, Lima (2019); Grabador fantasma, CCA, Quito (2019). Selected group exhibitions include: La Condizione Umana, Gallerie d’Italia, Torino; GUT_BRAIN 1: Destructive Desires and Other Destinies of Excess, The Blackwood, University of Toronto Mississauga, Toronto; I see no difference between a handshake and a poem, Mendes Wood DM, Paris; Night is the Shadow of the Earth, Wind H Art Center, Beijing, China (all 2023); Who tells a tale adds a tail: Latin America and contemporary art, Denver Art Museum (2022); Rethinking Nature, Museo Madre, Napoli (2021); Faz escuro mas eu canto, 34a Bienal de São Paulo, São Paulo (2020); Journey of a Thousand Miles, CAC, Quito (2019); Cosmopolis #2, Centre Pompidou, Paris (2019); 21st Contemporary Art Biennial Sesc Videobrasil, São Paulo (2019); osloBIENNALEN, First Edition, Oslo (2019); Museo Amparo, Puebla (2019). 

His work is part of several public collections such as the Han Nefkens Foundation, Barcelona, Spain; KADIST, San Francisco, USA and Paris, France; Les Abattoirs, Musée – Frac Occitanie, Toulouse, France; MACBA - Museu de Arte Contemporânea de Barcelona, Spain; MALI - Museu de Arte de Lima, Peru; Nasher Museum of Art, North Carolina, USA and Bowdoin College Museum of Art, Maine, USA.