Caroline Mesquita

Caroline Mesquita (b. 1989, Brest, France) lives and works in Marseille. Metallurgic humanoid sculptures form the tableaux for which Mesquita is best known for, their gestures both playfully interactive and at times intimate or violent. Mesquita creates her figures by hand, folding, squeezing and hammering the metal, then colouring them with ammonia, chloride and various acids. She instils her sculptures with autonomy through relinquishing creative control to the forces which oxidise and patinate the materials she works with. Since 2016, Mesquita has also been making stop-motion animated films, in which her sculptures interact with the artist in a kind of romantic anthropomorphism.

Mesquita holds qualifications from Beaux-Arts de Paris and The Mountain School of Art, Los Angeles. 

Selected solo exhibitions include: Bourse du travail Centre d’art, Valence (2023), Art Club, Villa Medicis, Rome (2023), Noctambules, CAN, Centre d’art Neuchâtel, Switzerland (2022), Humans and animals, Union Pacific, Statement Art Basel, Bâle, Switzerland (2021) and Astray (Prologue), Kunsthalle Lissabon, Portugal (2018). Selected group exhibitions include: Modernités cosmiques (curated by Michel Gauthier), FondaUon Vasarely, Aix-enProvence, France (2022), La diosa verde (curated by Dorothée Dupuis), Museo de Arte de Zapopan, Guadalajara, Mexico (2021), Futur, ancien, fugitif, Palais de Tokyo, Paris, France (2019) and GRAND OPENING (Summer Rhapsody), KURA., Fonderia Artistica Battaglia, Milan, Italy (2018). 

Installation view: Art Basel Basel, 2021 (Solo)

Le Festin, 2020, cardboard, painting, varnish, Centre d’art Contemporain Passerelle, Paris, Photos: Aurélien Mole and Thibault Henriet

Astray, 2019, Galeria Municipal do Porto, video 17 minutes 55 seconds,steel, plexiglass, plaster and wax Photo: Dinis Santos

Astray, 2019, Galeria Municipal do Porto, video 17 minutes 55 seconds,steel, plexiglass, plaster and wax Photo: Dinis Santos

Astray, 2019, Galeria Municipal do Porto, video 17 minutes 55 seconds,steel, plexiglass, plaster and wax Photo: Dinis Santos

Astray, 2019, Galeria Municipal do Porto, video 17 minutes 55 seconds,steel, plexiglass, plaster and wax Photo: Dinis Santos

Astray (Prologue), exhibition view at Kunsthalle Lissabon, December 2018

Astray (Prologue), Kunsthalle Lissabon, December 2018

The Ricard Prize, Paris

The Visitors, SALTS, Switzerland

Cream Sacrifice, Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh

Installation View, The Ballad, Fondation d’Entreprise Ricard, Paris, FR, Curated by Martha Kirszenbaum

123 Soleil Victoria, 2015, steel and oxidised brass, Image courtesy of Carlier Gebauer

Installation view, Bal, SpazioA, 2015

Windsurfers, 2015, oxidised copper, fabric, 140 x 357 x 357 cm, exhibition view, Carlier Gebauer Image courtesy of Carlier Gebauer

Installation View, Camping, Union Pacific, 2015

Billiard Table, 2015, chemically treated brass, 130 x 200 x 80 cm

Le Festin, 2020, lacquered aluminium, anodies aluminium, stainless steel, copper, brass, oak. Centre d’art Contemporain Passerelle, Photos: Aurélien Mole and Thibault Henriet

In vivo, 2020, Pivo, Sau Paolo, Kraft paper, painting, steel rods
Video 18 minutes 44 seconds. Photography: Everton Ballardin

Astray, 2019, Galeria Municipal do Porto, video 17 minutes 55 seconds,steel, plexiglass, plaster and wax Photo: Dinis Santos

Astray, 2019, Galeria Municipal do Porto, video 17 minutes 55 seconds,steel, plexiglass, plaster and wax Photo: Dinis Santos

Astray, 2019, Galeria Municipal do Porto, video 17 minutes 55 seconds,steel, plexiglass, plaster and wax Photo: Dinis Santos

Astray, 2019, Galeria Municipal do Porto, video 17 minutes 55 seconds,steel, plexiglass, plaster and wax Photo: Dinis Santos

Astray (Prologue), exhibition view at Kunsthalle Lissabon, December 2018

L'Engin, exhibition view at Indiana, Collective RATS, Vevey, June 2017

The Ricard Prize, Paris

Cream Sacrifice, Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh

Installation View, Cream Sacrifice, Jupiter Artland, Edinburgh

Installation View, The Ballad, Fondation d’Entreprise Ricard, Paris, FR, Curated by Martha Kirszenbaum

123 Soleil Victoria, 2015, steel and oxidised brass, Image courtesy of Carlier Gebauer

Installation view, Bal, SpazioA, 2015

Windsurfers, 2015, oxidised copper, fabric, 140 x 357 x 357 cm, exhibition view, Carlier Gebauer Image courtesy of Carlier Gebauer

Football Table, 2015, chemically treated brass, 140 x 100 x 70 cm

Bowling, 2015, chemically treated brass, 50 x 46 cm