Xavier Robles de Medina
XAVIER ROBLES DE MEDINA (b. 1990, Surinam)
lives and works between Berlin and Paramaribo
Xavier Robles de Medina is an artist and writer working at the intersection of visual art and research-based approaches. Informed by his creolized queer subjectivity, he explores linkages between personal history and broader contexts, often deliberately disrupting linear readings. Following a process of methodical collecting of both found and original images and texts, he accumulates and collages these materials in a process of discovery, forming the basis for meticulously crafted works that are mathematically plotted and remain at once poetic and political.
Recent solo exhibitions include Love is not a maybe thing …, Efremidis, Berlin (2024); I will go away into the wild wood, and never come home again, Alice Amati, London (2023); What if the tongue is cut out? with Catinca Tabacaru Gallery at Art Basel, Hong Kong (2022); and Wan Destination Wanhoop, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, Georgia (2020). Upcoming exhibitions include Tetris Effect (solo) with Catinca Tabacaru Gallery at Art Basel Paris and BPA// Exhibition 2024: Half-Light (group) at KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin. In 2024 he published his first monograph, Pengel (coy koi books, Berlin), detailing the creation of a three and a half meter tall bronze sculpture of Surinamese politician Johan Adolf Pengel by his grandfather, the Surinamese visual artist Stuart Robles de Medina. He is a current participant in the BPA// Berlin program for artists.
BORN 1990 IN PARAMARIBO, SURINAME
LIVES AND WORKS IN BERLIN, GERMANY
EDUCATION
- 2019
MFA in Fine Art, Goldsmiths, London, England
- 2012
BFA in Painting and Animation, Magna Cum Laude, Savannah College of Art and Design (SCAD), Savannah, USA
- 2008
Bilingual International Baccalaureate Diploma, St.Clare’s, Oxford, England
SOLO EXHIBITIONS
- 2025
[Title TBD], Galeria Catinca Tabacaru, Bucharest (Forthcomig)
- 2024
Tetris effect, Catinca Tabacaru, Art Basel Paris, FR
Love is not a maybe thing, Efremidis, Berlin- 2023
I will go away into the wild wood, and never come home again, Alice Amati, London
- 2022
What if the tongue is cut out?, Art Basel Hong Kong, Discoveries, with Catinca Tabacaru Gallery
- 2020
Ți-a ieșit iepurele în cale, Another Mobile Gallery, Bucharest
Faya Lobi, Praz Delavallade, Paris- 2020
Wan Destination Wanhoop, SCAD Museum of Art, Savannah, USA; Curator: Ben Tollefson
- 2019
MFA, Goldsmiths, London
Opportunity Cost, Praz Delavallade, Los Angeles- 2018
Catinca Tabacaru Gallery, Drawing Now, Paris
als het hele lichaam oor zou zijn” (if the whole body were an ear), Readytex Art Gallery, Surinam
The Future Looms Dark and That We Can Scarcely, Barbé Urbain, Gent, Belgium- 2017
TNF with Xavier Robles de Medina, Readytex Art Gallery, Surinam
If you dream of your tongue, beware, Catinca Tabacaru Gallery, New York- 2012
Atelo, Little Beasts Gallery, Savannah, USA
SELECTED GROUP EXHIBITIONS
- 2025
The Third Space, Curated by 2nd World, presented by Galeria Catinca Tabacaru; Collateral Exhibition to the 6th Art Encounters Biennial; French Institute, Timisoara
- 2024
Veils of Impermanence, Gossamer Fog, London, UK (curated by Samuel Capps)
BPA// Exhibition 2024: Half-Light, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin (Forthcoming)
_Sowing Watermelon Seeds-, CBN, Lagos Nigeria (curators: Sinazo Chiya,Raphael Guilbert, Olukemi Lijadu, Sarah Lorentzen, Tushar Hathiramani)
Currency Exchange, BPA// Raum, Berlin; Curator: Zhiyuan Yang- 2023
State of Emergence, Catinca Tabacaru Gallery, NADA East Broadway, New York; Curators: Lesia Kulchynska and Catinca Tabacaru
DucatoPrize 5 Finalists in Contemporary, Piacenza
Biographicality, Efremidis, Berlin
Capture Change, nouveaux deuxdeux, Munich
Party in the Blitz, Mamoth, London- 2022
Manifestatie 1980–1989: Surinaamse verhalen van vreugde en verdriet, Readytex Art Gallery, Paramaribo, SR (co-curated w/ Miguel Keerveld)
Trust in Mortals, Brigade, Copenhagen
NADA Curated: Reduction to Satire (Reductio ad Satura), Catinca Tabacaru Gallery, The New Art Dealers Alliance (curated by Fatoş Üstek; online)
The Palliative Turn, Künstlerhaus Bremen; Curated by Nadja Quante in close collaboration with Kasia Fudakowski and Olav Westphalen
Ĩ’NDAFFA FORGER / OUT OF THE FIRE, 14th Dakar Biennale, Dakar, Senegal; Curators: Dr El Hadji Malick Ndiaye, Delphine Buysse, and Anna Karima Wane
An Evening On The Palliative Turn hosted by Kasia Fudakowski, Pogo Bar, KW Institute for Contemporary Art, Berlin; Curator: Sofie Krogh Christensen- 2021
Udubaki, Readytex Art Gallery, Paramaribo, Surinam
Dionysia, No Man’s Art Gallery, Amsterdam
Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize, Trinity Buoy Wharf, London
The Palliative Turn, Brandenburgischer Kunstverein Potsdam, Germany; Curator: Olav Westphalen
Flux and Reflux, Portikus, Frankfurt, Germany; Curated by Willem de Rooij in the framework of his exhibition Pierre Verger in Suriname; online
Dreams Made Flesh, Galeria Catinca Tabacaru, Bucharest; Curator: Luís Manuel Araújo
Group exhibition, M. LeBlanc, Chicago- 2020
CTG Collective: The Berry Eaters, Catinca Tabacaru, New York
- 2019
General Meeting, Freehouse, London; Curated by Darren Flook and Nancy Hatcher
The Sound of Silence, Praz-Delavallade, Los Angeles
ZWRT, Barbé Urbain Gallery, Ghent
Metabolic Museum University, 33rd Ljubliana Biennial of Graphic Arts, Ljubliana, SI (devised by Clémentine Deliss)- 2018
CTG-R: Zimbabwe, Catinca Tabacaru Gallery, Harare, Zimbabwe
Material, Cob Gallery, London, UK
From Shape to Form, Yale Divinity School, New Haven, USA (curator: Jon Seals)
Jubileum Expo: 25 Jaar Readytex Art Gallery, Readytex Art Gallery, Paramaribo, Surinam- 2017
While Meditating on War, CBK Zuidoost, Amsterdam; Curator: Ronit Eden
X-C: Transference Between Neighbors, (with Clément Carat), WOW International, Amsterdam- 2016
Exhibition of the IAOCA, Kyoto Municipal Museum of Art, Japan
Zig Zag Zim, National Gallery of Zimbabwe, Harare, ZI (catalogue); Curated by Catinca Tabacaru
Zig Zag Zim part II, Catinca Tabacaru Gallery, New York, New York
25 Years Contemporary Art in Suriname, Readytex Art Gallery, Paramaribo, Surinam; Curator: Sasha Dees- 2015
Fictions and Constructions, Catinca Tabacaru, New York, NY
- 2014
It Begins on Paper, Catinca Tabacaru, New York, NY
- 2013
Ever Ours, Beethoven Festival: LOVE 2013, Chicago; curator: Catinca Tabacaru
Slideluck, Oglethorpe Gallery, Savannah, USA
THE SKETCHBOOK SHOW!!!, Ashmore Gallery, Savannah, USA- 2012
META, Gallery 263, Cambridge, USA
Small Works 2012, Gutstein Gallery, Savannah, USA
Cherchez La Vérité, The Porch, Savannah, USA
Little Beasts Gallery, Savannah, USA
Far From Home, Blue Gallery, Savannah, USA
THE SKETCHBOOK SHOW!!!, Little Beasts Gallery, Savannah, USA- 2011
Drawing Works, Alexander Gallery, Savannah, USA
AWARDS AND ACCOMPLISHMENTS
- 2023
DucatoPrize (finalist), Piacenza, Italy
- 2021
Trinity Buoy Wharf Drawing Prize (shortlist), London
- 2016
Royal Award for Modern Painting (shortlist), Royal Palace Amsterdam, Netherlands
- 2015
Prix de Rome (Visual Arts nominee), The Mondriaan Fund, Netherlands
- 2012
Artistic Honors Scholarship, Savannah College of Art and Design, USA
RESIDENCIES
- 2025
Fonderia Artistica Battaglia, Milano (Forthcoming)
- 2020
CTG ( R ): Romania, CTG Collective with Another Mobile Gallery, Bucharest
- 2019
CTG ( R ): Finland, CTG Collective at Serlachius Museums Residency, Mänttä
- 2018
CTG ( R ): Zimbabwe, CTG Collective in collaboration with Dzimbanhete Arts & Culture Interactions (DAI), Harare
- 2017
CTG ( R ): Zimbabwe, CTG Collective in collaboration with DAI, Harare
WOW Amsterdam, Netherlands- 2015
CTG ( R ): Zimbabwe CTG, Collective in collaboration with DAI, Harare