Leandro Katz, born in Buenos Aires in 1938. He is an Argentine artist, poet and writer. In the mid-1960s, after his long travels through countries of Latin America, his texts turned into conceptual art incorporating language, anthropological and historical research, and the photographic and cinematographic iconography of facts, whether real or imaginary. He is the author of various books and artist’s books.
Among his group shows are Encuentros de Pamplona 72: fin de fiesta del arte experimental [Pamplona 72 Encounters: The Party’s Over for Experimental Art], Museo Reina Sofía, Madrid; Imán: Nueva York [Magnet: New York], Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires; 10000 Vidas [10,000 Lives], Gwangju Biennial, South Korea; Photography in Argentina, 1850-2010: Contradiction and Continuity, The Getty Museum, Los Angeles and Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires (curated by Judy Keller, Idurre Alonso y Rodrigo Alonso); Naturaleza. Refugio y recursos del hombre, Centro Cultural Kirchner, Buenos Aires; Ecologías, Museo Sívori, Buenos Aires (curated by Sebastián Vidal Mackinson) and Proregress – Art in an Age of
Historial Ambivalence, 12a Shangai Biennal (curated by Cuauhtémoc Medina).
Among his solo shows are Arrebatos, diagonales y rupturas [Raptures, Diagonals and Ruptures], Fundación Telefónica, Buenos Aires (curated by Bérénice Reynaud), El Rastro de la Gaviota [The Seagull’s Tracks], Tabacalera, Madrid (curated by Berta Sichel); Proyecto para el día que me quieras, PROA21, Fundación Proa, Buenos Aires (curated by Cuauhtémoc Medina and Cecilia Rabossi), Proyecto para el día que me quieras la danza de fantasmas, Museo Universitario de Arte Contemporáneo (MUAC), Mexico, and Alfabeto Lunar and Un cuento de hadas – A fairy tale, Biblioteca Nacional de Buenos Aires, as part of the project ArtBasel Cities Buenos Aires (curated by Cecilia Alemani).
His works are in collections in Argentina and abroad, including those of MoMA, New York; Museo de Arte Moderno of Buenos Aires; Museum of Latin American Art of Buenos Aires; Museum of Fine Arts, Buenos Aires; Museo Reina Sofia, Madrid; MUAC, Mexico City; MALI, Lima; Blanton Museum, Austin; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; Pérez Art Museum, Miami, and the Getty Museum, Los Angeles.
He has received support from the Guggenheim Foundation; the U.S. National Endowment for the Arts; the Fondo Hubert Bals, the Netherlands; and CIFO Fundación Cisneros Fontanals, among other institutions.
In 2020/2021 he received the prestigious Premio Nacional a la Trayectoria Artística (National Award for Artistic Career) in Buenos Aires.