Carlos Motta (b. 1978, Colombia) is a multidisciplinary artist whose practice documents the social conditions and political struggles of sexual, gender, and ethnic minority communities, challenging normative discourses through acts of self-representation. As a historian of untold narratives, Motta is deeply committed to researching the struggles of post-colonial subjects and societies. His work spans a variety of media, including video, installation, sculpture, drawing, web-based projects, performance, and symposia.
In 2026, Motta’s mid-career survey, Carlos Motta: Pleas of Resistance—originally shown in 2025 at the Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona (MACBA) and co-curated by Agustín Pérez Rubio and María Berrios—will travel to OK Contemporary Art Center in Linz, curated by Agustín Pérez-Rubio and Susanne Watzenboeck. In the fall, Motta will also present a solo exhibition at the Institute for Arts and Sciences, University of California, Santa Cruz, curated by Rachel Nelson.
In 2025, Motta received the Ruth Arts Award and had a solo exhibition at Mor Charpentier in Paris. In 2024, he held the solo exhibition Gravidade (Gravity) at Galeria Vermelho, São Paulo, and participated in Disobedience Archive, a project by Marco Scotini at La Biennale di Venezia, curated by Adriano Pedrosa. He also took part in group exhibitions including Scientia Sexualis during Pacific Standard Time at ICA LA and El Dorado (Myths of Gold) at Americas Society, New York. Additionally, Motta premiered the new performance Gravedad at El Espacio 23, Miami, during Art Basel week in December 2024.
Motta’s work has been the focus of several survey exhibitions, including Carlos Motta: Stigmata at Museo de Arte Moderno de Bogotá (MAMBO) (2023); Carlos Motta: Your Monsters, Our Idols at the Wexner Center for the Arts, Columbus, OH (2022); Carlos Motta: Formas de libertad at Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellín (MAMM), Colombia (2017), which traveled to Matucana 100, Santiago, Chile (2018); and Carlos Motta: For Democracy There Must Be Love at Röda Sten Konsthall, Gothenburg, Sweden (2015).
Other solo exhibitions at international museums include We Got Each Other’s Back at Portland Institute for Contemporary Art (PICA) (2020); Corpo Fechado at Galeria Avenida da Índia (EGEAC), Lisbon (2018); The Crossing at Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam (2017); Histories for the Future at Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM) (2016); Réquiem at Museo de Arte Latinoamericano de Buenos Aires (MALBA) (2016); Patriots, Citizens, Lovers at PinchukArtCentre, Kiev (2015); Gender Talents at Tate Modern, London (2013); La forma de la libertad at Sala de Arte Público Siqueiros, Mexico (2013); We Who Feel Differently at New Museum, New York (2012); Brief History at MoMA/PS1, New York (2009); and The Good Life at the Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Philadelphia (2008), among others.
Motta participated in major group exhibitions such as Signals: How Video Transformed the World at The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), New York (2023); Is it Morning for You Yet?, 58th Carnegie International (2022); The Crack Begins Within, 11th Berlin Biennale for Contemporary Art (2020); Incerteza Viva, 32nd Bienal de São Paulo (2016); A Story Within A Story, Göteborg International Biennial of Contemporary Art (2015); Burning Down the House, X Gwangju Biennale (2014); and Le spectacle du quotidien, X Lyon Biennale (2010). His films have screened at the Rotterdam Film Festival (2016, 2010); Toronto International Film Festival (2013); Internationale Kurzfilmtage Winterthur (2016); Film at Lincoln Center (2021); and Anthology Film Archives (2022), among others.
Other recent group exhibitions include shows at Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin (2022); Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2021); The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (2020); Institute of Contemporary Art (ICA), Boston (2019); San Francisco Museum of Modern Art (SFMoMA) (2019); and Migros Museum, Zürich (2019).
Carlos Motta’s first 20-year career monograph, Carlos Motta: History’s Backrooms, was published by SKIRA in June 2020. His work is also featured in Phaidon’s 2023 anthology Latin American Artists.
Motta has received numerous awards, including the Artist Impact Initiative x Creative Time R&D Fellowship (2023), the Vilcek Foundation’s Prize for Creative Promise (2017), the PinchukArtCentre Future Generation Art Prize (2014), and a Guggenheim Fellowship (2008). He has also received grants from the Penn Mellon Just Futures Initiative (2022), The Rockefeller Brothers Fund (2019), Art Matters (2008), NYSCA (2010), Creative Capital Foundation (2012), and the Kindle Project (2012).
He has recently delivered talks and presentations at Carnegie Mellon University, Pittsburgh; Amant Foundation, New York; Guggenheim Museum; Museu de Arte de São Paulo (MASP); Berlin Biennial; The Center for Cultural Studies, UCSC; Summit X Sessions, Creative Time; MIT List Center; MoMA; Artists Space; New Museum; Frieze New York; and Museo Jumex. Motta guest-edited the April 2013 issue of the e-flux journal, titled “(im)practical (im)possibilities,” focusing on contemporary queer art and culture.
Carlos Motta’s work is held in the permanent collections of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Guggenheim Museum, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid; Centre Pompidou, Paris; Museu Fundación Serralves, Porto; Museo de Arte Contemporáneo de Barcelona; and Museo de Arte de Banco de la República, Bogotá, among many other institutional, corporate, and private collections worldwide.
Motta is an Associate Professor of Interdisciplinary Practice (with tenure) in the Fine Arts Department at Pratt Institute.
