# Gabriel Orozco artist context and auction value notes

Canonical page: https://appraisily.com/artist/gabriel-orozco/
Profile generated: 2026-05-14T21:43:45.616Z
Quality: high confidence, strong sources

## Artist identity

- Birth date: 1962-04-27
- Nationality: Mexican, American
- Movements: Conceptual art
- Common media: Sculpture, Photography, Installation art, Drawing, New media / digital art

## About Gabriel Orozco

Gabriel Orozco (born April 27, 1962, Veracruz, Mexico) is a Mexican-American artist whose practice encompasses sculpture, photography, drawing, installation, and new media. He emerged as a defining figure of international contemporary art in the early 1990s, when his work with found objects, everyday materials, and ephemeral interventions drew critical attention at galleries and biennials worldwide. MoMA holds more than fifty of his works, including the widely exhibited sculptures Yielding Stone (1992) and Empty Shoe Box (1993). Tate, the Guggenheim, and Centre Pompidou have also acquired his work. Orozco's art resists easy categorization within a single movement, but his use of Conceptual strategies—appropriating readymade forms, recombining geometric patterns, and staging encounters in public space—has made him one of the most influential artists of his generation.

## Common works and media

Collectors and appraisers most frequently encounter Orozco's work in the following forms: small-scale sculptures in plaster, resin, or found materials (such as Yielding Stone, a plasticine sphere weighted to the artist's body mass); gelatin silver and chromogenic photographs of urban scenes, street interventions, and geometric compositions; graphite and ink drawings on paper and board, often incorporating circular or grid motifs; readymade and modified-object installations; and limited-edition prints. Some works are unique, while photographs and certain multiples are editioned. Condition issues to watch for include surface marks on soft-material sculptures, fading or handling creases on photographs, and brittleness in paper-based works.

## Market and appraisal context

Gabriel Orozco's work appears regularly in Post-War and Contemporary Art sales at major auction houses. Collectors encounter sculptures, photographs, drawings, and editioned prints, each with a distinct value range. Unique sculptures and installations from his early-1990s breakout period tend to attract the strongest market interest. Provenance tied to museum exhibitions or biennial presentations can significantly affect appraisal. Photographs and works on paper may exist in editions, so verifying edition number, size of edition, and condition is essential. Attribution should reference documented exhibition or publication history, and comparable auction results for works in the same medium and date range provide the most reliable valuation benchmarks.

## Appraisily data basis

Appraisily artist pages combine verified artist identity research from museum, library-authority, and scholarly sources with publicly documented auction records, sale dates, realized prices, and comparable lots. For Gabriel Orozco, this page draws on records from MoMA, Tate, the Getty Union List of Artist Names, VIAF, the RKD, Wikidata, and the Library of Congress, supplemented by auction-house context when available.

## Sources

- Wikidata: https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q1242404
- Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gabriel_Orozco
- Getty Vocabulary Program: https://vocab.getty.edu/page/ulan/500114732
- VIAF: https://viaf.org/viaf/39522666/
- Library of Congress: https://id.loc.gov/authorities/names/n94107698
- The Museum of Modern Art: https://www.moma.org/artists/7461
- Tate: https://www.tate.org.uk/art/artists/gabriel-orozco-2685
- RKD: https://rkd.nl/en/explore/artists/223565
