Adán Paredes

Resume 

ADÁN PAREDES VERA (Mexico City, 1961) studied archeology at the National School of Anthropology and History (Mexico City). Through archeology, Paredes developed a strong bond with the history of the soil, so for the past 3 years he has found in ceramics a form of expressing his knowledge.

Paredes has participated in solo and group exhibits within Mexico and abroad, such as: Mexico City, Puebla, Querétaro Monterrey, Oaxaca, San Miguel de Allende, Veracruz, Yucatán, the United States, Canada, Venezuela, Puerto Rico, Germany, Austria, Denmark, Ireland, France, Belgium, the former Yugoslavia and China. 

His work has been granted numerous prizes and awards including, an Honorary Mention during the First Biennial of Ceramics at the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City, a residency at the Gruber Jez foundation in Yucatán, a residency at the School of Applied Arts in Vienna and at the Banff Center for the Arts. Paredes has been a member of the Sistema Nacional de Creadores (National Creators System), awarded by the Ministry of Culture in Mexico.

He has dabbled in monumental art, as in 2014 he was commissioned a 13 feet high ceramic horse for a ranch in Avandaro, Mexico; and in that same year he was invited to intervene the walls of the Chapulin Restaurant in the Presidente Intercontinental Hotel in Mexico City, making 14,000 individually hand-made ceramic pieces, placed throughout the restaurant.

In 2015 he had a solo exhibition at the Ceramics Museum in Andenne, Belgium and showed his work in the Portes Ouvertes in Belleville, Paris as an international invited artist. That same year he led a ceramics workshop at Harvard University in Boston. At the beginning of 2016 he donated Tlaloc a high-temperature ceramic sculpture made with oxide and metal to the European External Action Service for its communal cultural heritage. In September of that same year, he designed and created 300 plates for the Sixth Edition of Millesime Mexico, which is the most important culinary event of the year.

Paredes was commissioned a large-scale work which is part of the new Highland Hall Residential Building of Stanford’s Graduate School of Business.

His works are part of the collections of several museums and foundations including the Museum of Contemporary Art in Yucatán; Gruber Jez Foundation, Banff Center for the Arts, Contemporary Art Museum of Oaxaca, Museum of Latin American Art of Los Angeles, Nuevo León Center for the arts gallery, Ministry of Finance collection, Tsinghua University in Beijing, China; The Latin American Cultural Center and Museum in Seoul, Korea; and Georgetown University in Doha, Qatar.

Prestigious Mexican architectural firms as L+L, Claudia López Duplan, Javier Sordo Madaleno, Sama Arquitectos SC and Javier Hierro, amongst others, have

joined Paredes for their projects.

Paredes has worked as a ceramics consultant with contemporary artists such as Francisco Toledo, Jorge Yazpik, Guillermo Olguin and Sergio Hernández.

His work has been included in collective and solo shows: Anhelos extraviados, at the Sonora Museum of Art; Procesos en el Arte, 60 Contemporary Artists in the collection of the Mexican Ministry of Foreign Affairs Museum; Rompiendo Muros at the Memory and Tolerance Museum in Mexico City, Rapsodia de tierra y tiempo at the Casa de los Muñecos University Museum in Puebla, and Gemoetría de la luz Tribute to Ben Nicholson at Pandea Gallery in Puebla, and an exhibition at the San Pablo Cultural Center in Oaxaca City.

In 2016 he presented his book Aramara, a publication dedicated to his work with sea themes.

He has been designated Ambassador for ORIS Swiss Watches in Mexico, launching a special limited edition designed by him for the Cultural Collection.

In October 2019, the Los Pinos Cultural Complex invited the artist to intervene some walls in the Miguel Alemán House with a Tzompantli in commemoration of the Day of the Dead; and in the gardens of the same Complex he presents “Migrantes”, as part of the exhibition “Escultura de la Tierra”.

And it is in Oaxaca where in the month of November 2019 he presents “Journey to the Tzompantli” in the Panteón San Miguel, and in parallel the suspended work “El Último Suspiro”, in the Museo de los Pintores Oaxaqueños.

In his constant creative search, Adán Paredes launched in 2020 seven folders of engravings in the technique of colography.

Adan has participated pro-bono in many Foundation auctions in Mexico, donating art work or putting his talent in designated pieces.

He lives and works in Santo Domingo Barrio Alto, Etla, in Oaxaca, Mexico, in his studio Los Alacranes.