Ehrenberg, Felipe

A pioneer of Latin American conceptual art, who defines himself as a neologist, Felipe Ehrenberg has remained on the fringes of commercial circuits. Writer, activist, teacher and diplomat, he is interested in social, cultural and political issues related to postmodernity. His artistic production includes drawing, painting, sculpture, performance, installation, mail art and printing. Between 1968 and 1974, he lived in England, where he participated in the founding of Beau Geste Press, an editorial project dedicated to promoting experimental artists. Close to the Fluxus movement, he became one of the precursors of happening and performance art. In 1974, he returned to Mexico and participated in the founding of the Proceso Pentágono group, which had a strong influence on the Mexican artistic groups of the 1970s such as the Taller de Investigación Plástica (TIP), Suma, and the Taller de Arte e Ideología (TAI). In 1990, Nexus Press (Atlanta) published "Codex Aeroscriptus Ehrenbergensis," showcasing much of the artist's iconographic work, and in 1995, the Mexican National Council for Culture and the Arts published "Vidrios Rotos y el ojo que los ve," an anthology of his newspaper articles. He exhibited his project "Pretérito imperfecto" at the Carrillo Gil Museum of Art in Mexico City (1992) and "Manchuria, visión periférica" at the Museum of Modern Art of Mexico City (2008), a retrospective exhibition commemorating over fifty years of the artist's career, which also took place at the Museum of Latin American Art in California and the Pinacoteca do Estado de São Paulo (2010). After serving as cultural attaché of Mexico in Brazil, he became the director of International Relations at Televisión América Latina (TAL) in São Paulo.