Luis Jacob

Profile

Born in Lima, Peru, Luis Jacob is a Toronto-based artist and curator whose diverse practice addresses social interaction and the subjectivity of aesthetic experience.

Realized as painting, video, installation and photography, as well as actions in the public sphere, Jacob’s work invites a collision of meaning systems that destabilize our conventions of viewing and that open up possibilities for engagement and the creation of knowledge.

Jacob studied semiotics and philosophy at the University of Toronto. Participatory education is dear to his heart: in 2003 he was part of the Anarchist Free University collective, and from 1998 to 2000 took part in the Anarchist Free School collective in Toronto. He has worked as sessional professor at the University of Guelph and the University of Toronto, and currently serves on the Education Committee at the Art Gallery of Ontario.

As an artist, he has achieved an international reputation – particularly since his participation in Documenta 12 in 2007 – with solo exhibitions at Kunsthalle Lingen (2012); Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art, Toronto (2011); Fonderie Darling, Montréal (2010); Städtisches Museum Abteiberg, Mönchengladbach (2009); and Kunstverein Hamburg, (2008). Jacob’s work was also featured in group exhibitions at the Taipei Biennial 2012: Modern Monsters / Death and Life in Fiction; Witte de With Contemporary Art, Rotterdam (2012); Generali Foundation, Vienna (2011); Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York (2010); and The Power Plant Contemporary Art Gallery, Toronto (2008).