Biography

Born

San Antonio, Texas 1983

Education

University of California San Diego, La Jolla, CA, M.F.A
California Institute of the Arts, Valencia, CA, B.F.A.

Exhibitions (Selected)

2026
Mission el Desierto, Raza Cosmica Film Festival (forthcoming)

2021
Seguir Al Polvo | Follow The Dust, Art At a Time Like This (online)

2019
Segundo Encuentro Internacional de Objetos y Muros
Tlaxcala 3, Mexico City, MX; Institute for Endotic Research, Berlin, DE

2018
Rituales del Caos, Casa Lu, Mexico City, MX

2014
DumbSun (solo), SME Visual Arts Gallery, University of California San Diego, CA
Festival del Bosque Germinal, Casa del Lago, Mexico City, MX
Crater, Alternativa Once Galería, Monterrey, MX
Elective Affinities, University Art Gallery, University of California San Diego, CA (catalog)

2013
Para No Salir del Laberinto, Lugar a Dudas, Cali CO
(included: Labyrinth How a Community Defines Itself)
Stop and Go (solo), University of California San Diego, San Diego, CA

2012
A Fist Full of Air (solo), University California San Diego, San Diego, CA
SOMA Summer 2012, Mexico City MX (catalog)

2010
Abandoned Mystery of the Conjunction (solo), Capitol Studios Gallery, Los Angeles, CA

2011
8/29/70, Vincent Price Museum, Los Angeles, CA
Chasing Shadows The Onion, Los Angeles, CA

2009
Love it or leave it, 111 Minna, San Francisco, CA

2008
Conventions and Attitudes, Exchange Rate, Los Angeles, CA and New York, NY
Just how does a patriot act: A response to US policy at home and abroad, Orange County Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Ana, CA (catalog)
Audacity of Desperation, Sea and Space Explorations, Los Angeles, CA Urbana Urbana-Champaign Independent Media Center, IL

2007
Deconstructed Reality (solo), Lime Gallery, CalArts, Valencia CA
ID 517 Exhibtion, D301 Gallery, Cal Arts Valencia CA

Bibliography

Bolívar, Clara. “El muro como objeto desde perspectivas latinoamericanas.” Borders in Globalization Review, 2022.
“Seguir al Polvo.” Chiquilla Te Quiero, 2021.
“Seguir al Polvo.” Artishock Revista, 2021.
Bolívar, Clara. Relatoría: 2do Encuentro Internacional de Objetos y Muros, 2020.
Kraus, Chris. Social Practices. Semiotext(e), 2018.
Festival del Bosque Germinal Catalogue, Casa del Lago, 2015.
Sensitive Boys, Issue 2: “The Cult of Crying.” Printed Matter LA Art Book Fair, 2014.
SOMA Summer Open Studios, curated by Szu-Han Ho, 2012.
Cheh, Carol. “Chasing Shadows.” Another Righteous Transfer, December 11, 2010.
Art Monster Drawing Rally Catalogue, 2008.
Just How Does a Patriot Act? Exhibition Catalogue, 2008.
“Human Nature vs Technology.” Onestar Press, 2007.

Grants and Awards

2014 UCIRA Grant, University of California, San Diego
2013 Russell Grant, University of California, San Diego
2012 UC MEXUS Grant, University of California, San Diego

Panels, Seminars, Workshops, and Conferences

2021 The Global Cener for Advanced Sudies LatinoAmerica, Zoom
2012 SOMA Summer 2012, Mexico City
2008 Artist lecture at Self-Help Graphics, East Los Angeles, CA
2008 Monster Drawing Rally, Outpost for Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA

Artist Statement
Tomás Villalobos Moreno is a multidisciplinary artist working across sculpture, sound, drawing, installation, video, and performance. His practice examines how meaning is constructed around objects, images, sounds, and histories, and how those meanings shift when familiar things are encountered under unfamiliar conditions.

Working with archival fragments, cultural narratives, language, and material traces, Moreno creates situations in which recognition does not necessarily lead to understanding. Objects may resist their expected functions, sounds may persist beyond their original contexts, and familiar narratives may become unstable. His work examines how cultural memory acquires authority and what remains unresolved in the encounter between historical evidence and lived experience.

History enters his work not as a stable record to be reconstructed, but as a body of material whose meanings remain active in the present. Through the relationships he constructs between materials, images, language, sound, and space, Moreno unsettles familiar assumptions without replacing them with a single authoritative account.

Research rarely concludes with a single work. Residual fragments, abandoned inquiries, and unresolved questions become points of departure for subsequent projects, as each body of work expands, revises, and recomposes the ideas and materials of those that came before it.

Biography
Tomás Villalobos Moreno is a multidisciplinary artist working across installation, sculpture, sound, drawing, video and performance. He earned his BFA from CalArts and MFA from UC San Diego. He was a SOMA Summer resident in Mexico City, 2012. His work has been exhibited at Casa del Lago Mexico City, Lugar a Dudas, Cali Colombia, and the Vincent Price Museum, Los Angeles. His writings have been published by Onestar Press and Festina Publicaciones. He is the recipient of UCIRA and UC MEXUS awards.