Argentinian sculptor Adrián Villar Rojas’ exhibition “First Gods, Lost Animals” has been on view at the Aspen Art Museum (AAM) since July 2 and will remain on display through April 11, 2027.The exhibition spans two floors of the museum and explores the ways humans attempt to understand and navigate a complex world through art, symbolism, technology and other systems of knowledge.
According to AAM’s website, Villar Rojas’ work is based on “the premise that humans, as finite intelligences, confront a universe whose complexity far exceeds their cognitive scale,” and continues, “In this condition, symbolic tools arise—gods, art, mathematics—as adaptive technologies that render the world navigable.”
In an email interview, Claude Adjil, Curator-at-Large at AAM, shared more about the artist’s work, the ideas behind the exhibition and what she hopes visitors will take away from experiencing it.
As a curator, why did you choose to feature the work of Adrián Villar Rojas?
Throughout my career I’ve had the immense joy of witnessing many of Adrián’s spectacular exhibitions and many of these encounters have stayed with me long after. He builds worlds and challenges our expectations of what we define and conceive of as contemporary art. I wanted our audiences to have the opportunity to also encounter such sublime and surreal work. His work operates across many different thresholds and challenges systems of understanding, categorisation and perception. These encounters have had a profound influence on how I see and understand the world. Adrián’s ability to metabolise and reconfigure subjects from robotics to linguists to prehistory takes visitors on journeys across time and species and delves into the beauty and suffering that engulfs us and it’s in these states where I marvel at seeing things through his eyes.
What do these pieces evoke for you personally as a curator, and what do you hope community members take away from experiencing
the exhibition?
Adrián is an incredible story teller and with this exhibition we see the capacity and power of artists to shape our understanding of the physical and digital worlds we inhabit. There has always been a human impulse to create art and develop systems and rituals of code. The exhibition features a series of various caves. The cave is an interesting apparatus and structure that becomes a possible site of projection and meaning making. I wonder what projections and presumptions people will bring with them. Villar Rojas repeatedly asks what if we could see ourselves from the outside. I wonder how visitors will look at things differently after spending time in his worlds and realizing things do not exist in isolation.
What is one thing you would like to share with
our community about
the exhibition?
An extraordinary group of people came together to make this exhibition possible. For over two years a team in Argentina has been working on the modeling and engineering of the show while for three months we had a team of 12 studio members in the US working on making and installing the exhibition. Adrián has been working with some members of his studio for over 15 years. I’ve never worked with such a dedicated, determined and passionate team before. At various points throughout the project many people told us certain things would not be possible and throughout we continually pushed against this fear and continued to work and strategize on how to bring this exhibition to life. There are infinite solutions and opportunities if you are willing to take the time to listen and work together. The exhibition is free so I hope people will have the chance to come and spend time with the work and come again and notice things that may not have originally caught their attention.
Admission to the museum, located at 637 E. Hyman Ave., is free as a courtesy of Amy and John Phelan and access to exhibitions is free and accessible thanks to AAM Members. The museum is open from Tuesday through Saturday, 10am to 6pm.
Translation assisted by AI.